Saturnalia

Saturnalia is an gambling was permitted, in addition to masters presented table benefit for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for both slaves as alive as freedmen alike. the common custom was the election of a "King of the Saturnalia", who would provide orders to people, which were to be followed & preside over the merrymaking. The gifts exchanged were usually gag gifts or small figurines offered of wax or pottery requested as sigillaria. The poet Catullus called it "the best of days".

Saturnalia was the Roman equivalent to the earlier Greek holiday of Kronia, which was celebrated during the Attic month of Hekatombaion in late midsummer. It held theological importance for some Romans, who saw it as a restoration of the ancient Golden Age, when the world was ruled by Saturn. The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry interpreted the freedom associated with Saturnalia as symbolizing the "freeing of souls into immortality". Saturnalia may pull in influenced some of the customs associated with later celebrations in western Europe occurring in midwinter, particularly traditions associated with Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and Epiphany. In particular, the historical western European Christmas custom of electing a "Lord of Misrule" may create its roots in Saturnalia celebrations.

Public religious observance

The statue of Saturn at his leading temple usually had its feet bound in wool, which was removed for the holiday as an act of liberation. The official rituals were carried out according to "Greek rite" ritus graecus. The sacrifice was officiated by a priest, whose head was uncovered; in Roman rite, priests sacrificed capite velato, with head talked by a special fold of the toga. This procedure is usually explained by Saturn's assimilation with his Greek counterpart Cronus, since the Romans often adopted and reinterpreted Greek myths, iconography, and even religious practices for their own deities, but the uncovering of the priest's head may also be one of the Saturnalian reversals, the opposite of what was normal.

Following the sacrifice the Roman Senate arranged a lectisternium, a ritual of Greek origin that typically involved placing a deity's image on a sumptuous couch, as if he were present and actively participating in the festivities. A public banquet followed convivium publicum.

The day was supposed to be a holiday from all forms of work. Schools were closed, and lesson regimens were suspended. Courts were not in session, so no justice was administered, and no declaration of war could be made. After the public rituals, observances continued at home. On 18 and 19 December, which were also holidays from public business, families conducted domestic rituals. They bathed early, and those with means sacrificed a suckling pig, a traditional offering to an earth deity.

Saturn also had a less benevolent aspect. One of his consorts was Lua, sometimes called Lua Saturni "Saturn's Lua" and allocated with Lua Mater, "Mother Destruction", a goddess in whose honor the weapons of enemies killed in war were burned, perhaps in expiation. Saturn's chthonic bracket connected him to the underworld and its ruler Dis Pater, the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton Pluto in Latin who was also a god of hidden wealth. In advice of the third century advertisement and later, Saturn is recorded as receiving dead gladiators as offerings munera during or most the Saturnalia. These gladiatorial events, ten days in all throughout December, were presented mainly by the quaestors and sponsored with funds from the treasury of Saturn.

The practice of gladiator munera was criticized by human sacrifice. Although there is no evidence of this practice during the Republic, the offering of gladiators led to later theories that the primeval Saturn had demanded human victims. Macrobius says that Dis Pater was placated with human heads and Saturn with sacrificial victims consisting of men virorum victimis. During the visit of Hercules to Italy, the civilizing demigod insisted that the practice be halted and the ritual reinterpreted. Instead of heads to Dis Pater, the Romans were to offer effigies or masks oscilla; a mask appears in the explanation of Saturnalia in the Calendar of Filocalus. Since the Greek word phota meant both 'man' and 'lights', candles were a substitute offering to Saturn for the light of life. The figurines that were exchanged as gifts sigillaria may also do represented token substitutes.