IS: Cultural Lesson - Roman Holidays and the Calendar

Roman Holidays and the Calendar

The Romans celebrated many festivals during their calendar year, with major celebrations in just about every month. However, most Romans viewed one particular festival as the most important and most enjoyable: Saturnalia. Beginning on the 17th of December and lasting from three to seven days, this winter festival was filled with games, parties, gift giving, and great revelry. During Saturnalia, slaves, for one day, would switch places with their masters, eating their dinner in the triclinium, served by their masters. It was the only time during the year in which gambling and games of chance were fully legal. The festival itself is named after the god Saturn, who was the ancient god of the harvest. On December 17, everyone would gather at the Temple of Saturn, where there would be a public sacrifice and ceremony performed by Roman senators (see image, which shows animals being prepared for sacrifice). Then, with the formalities concluded, the senators would dismiss the crowd to their own private celebrations and the party would truly begin. Gift giving was conducted on the 19th of December, a day called the Sigillaria.  The standard greeting for the celebration of Saturnalia was “Io, Saturnalia!” 

Saturnalicius Princeps

During the celebration of Saturnalia, one individual was elected (creatus est) by lot to take on the role of the Saturnalicius princeps: the King of Saturnalia. This tradition appears to have begun during the empire, under the rule of the emperors, who took the title Princeps, avoiding the hated term rex (king). As with many other aspects of Saturnalia, there was a degree of political and social commentary embedded in the celebration. The idea of slaves becoming masters for a day was expanded to the idea of one member of a household becoming princeps for a day, and his word becoming law. Any command given by the Saturnalicius princeps had to be obeyed, no matter how silly or ludicrous: “Dance a jig in the atrium!” or “Eat a full bowl of figs!”  The idea that the office of the emperor was being satirized was an example of an early form of free speech, but it was strictly limited to the Saturnalia festival.

On the left side of the image above, note the man behind the purple curtain: he is the Saturnalicius princeps. All the others in the image are directing their attention and fealty towards him. In the center of the picture are individuals following one of the king's edicts, while on the right are various members of the household, hailing their princeps in the traditional way, with arm raised. The title of the painting is Ave, Caesar! Io, Saturnalia! by Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1880.

Dies Nefasti - Roman Holidays other than Saturnalia

Each month had a series of days, known as dies nefasti, in which official business could not be held. Not everyone of these was feriae (a religious celebration), but there were several major holidays, often more than one per month. A few of the major holidays included Lupercalia in February, Liberalia in March and Vulcanalia in August.

The image to the right is a pencil sketch by Adam Elsheimer showing Romans celebrating the holiday: Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a celebration in which the Romans celebrated Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus. As such, it was a celebration of cleansing and purification, aimed at removing evil spirits from the city. 

Liberalia, in March, was a festival designed to mark the maturation of boys to manhood. Any boy who was 14 on or before the start of the festival was allowed to put aside his bulla and the toga praetexta and don the toga virilis - the toga of manhood.

In August, the Romans celebrated Vulcanalia, in hopes of appeasing the fire god, Vulcan. August was a very hot, dry month, which meant that crops commonly caught fire. Romans built bonfires and tossed in offerings of small fish and fruit to ward off any unwanted fires from Vulcan. These festivals and the others like them all served important functions, allowing Romans a chance to celebrate various gods and perform rituals that they felt furthered their well being. 

The Roman Calendar

The image to the left shows a single part of a much larger mosaic of a Roman calendar. This mosaic was found in Sousse, Tunisia. The Roman calendar was originally made up of ten months, starting with March (Martius) and going through December. Later, the months of January (Ianuarius) and February (Februarius) were added to the start of the calendar to better align it with the solar cycle. The names of the months were very similar to our current names:

• Ianuarius
• Februarius
• Martius
• Aprilis
• Maius
• Iunius
• Iulius
• Augustus
• September
• October
• November
• December

Iulius (July) was originally called Quintilus and Augustus was known as Sextilus. The months of Quintilus through December were numbered using the original calendar, thus 5th month (Quintilus), 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th - the numbers no longer matched up when January and February were added to the start, but the names remained anyway.

Days were counted based on three days that happened in every month:

• Kalends (1st of the month),
• Nones (5th/7th of the month)
• Ides (13th/15th of the month)

March, May, July and October had their Nones on the 7th and their Ides on the 15th. The Romans counted backwards from each of those three days and included the day when counting, so they would say that Jan 3rd was three days (Jan 3, 4, 5) before the nones of January, which was abbreviated III a.d. non. Ian. 

The days of the week were named after deities or celestial objects:

• Dies Solis (Sunday)
• Dies Lunae (Monday)
• Dies Martis (Tuesday)
• Dies Mercurii (Wednesday)
• Dies Iovis (Thursday)
• Dies Veneris (Friday)
• Dies Saturni (Saturday)

Public sacrifice image courtesy of FCIT Links to an external site..