Lucia’s Day.Īfter the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, Christian authorities found Saturnalia and Kalends customs difficult to remove. The festival of light on December 13 is still celebrated in Scandinavia (as well as in Northern Italy and Sicily) as St. The festival of Yule, equally associated with light, greenery, exchange of gifts and feasting, was the midwinter festival celebrated by the Germanic people.
We find similar customs also in Nordic traditions. People exchanged gifts, including a sprig of greenery, cakes, honey and coins. This lasted from January 1 to January 5 with similar traditions to Saturnalia. Saturnalia was followed by the festival of Kalends celebrating the turn of the year. People chose a mock king: the Saturnalicius princeps, or ‘leader of Saturnalia,’ usually a lowlier member of the society, who became responsible to rule over chaos by making mischief during the celebrations. Slaves sat at the head of the table while their masters served them. During this time the ordinary rules of life were subverted. They ate pork roasted with figs or stewed with dried apricots, pork sausages, bread from Roman bakeries, honey cakes, baked fruit, and they drank spiced sweetened wine. People would feast in their homes, but there would also be a big public feast at the oldest temple in Rome, the Temple of Saturn. Romans gambled, played music, gave gifts to each other and to gods, and lit candles symbolising the returning of light. Saturnalia was by far the jolliest Roman holiday “the best of times” according to the 1st century Roman poet Catullus. Make the most of it.Winter or Saturnalia (L’Hiver ou les Saturnales), Antoine François Callet, 1783
#Lord of misrule saturnalia full
For now, this Fourth Day of Christmas, this Feast of Fools, you have full license to be a little foolish. The Lord of Misrule reigns until Twelfth Night, when a new lord appears: the King of the Bean. The madness gives full voice to the disintegration of the old year––the old order––and we welcome in the new year, which is born out of chaos. But with half the Twelve Days of Christmas falling in the old year and half falling in the new, we are at the same time watching the old year die and witnessing the birth of a new one. So what brings on this madness and merrymaking? Certainly the mirth and good cheer of the season have plenty to do with it. Donkeys were sometimes allowed in churches during Christmas, and there are records of masses said during this time in which the normal response of “amen” was replaced with the entire congregation braying in unison. It was a lowly ass upon which Mary rode into Bethlehem, and an ox and an ass, according to the old carol, were there when the child was born in a stable that first Christmas night… and it was an ass that took top billing at some church services during the Twelve Days of Christmas in medieval times. The Feast of Fools is known in Latin as Asinaria Festa, Feast of the Ass. The Lord of Misrule reigned over the revelry with no fear of retribution. The jester could become the lord, the servant the master. This Feast of Fools has much in common with the custom of the Boy Bishop, and what can speak more to ceremonious reversals than making a leader out of the lowly and meek? While the Boy Bishop oversaw the cathedral for the Christmas season, it was the Lord of Misrule that oversaw the revels.
The natural order of things was ceremoniously reversed, and this is precisely the theme of the Feast of Fools, which had its heyday in medieval times. Citizens disguised themselves behind masks. Slaves were waited upon by their masters. Gambling, normally frowned upon, was practiced openly. The Feast of Fools harkens back to the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, another solsticetide celebration, during which society would be turned on its head. The Fourth Day of Christmas was traditionally given over to silliness, although this Feast of Fools played a part in the whole season, not just this one day… and here we get to traditions that go back further, to old pagan customs, as do so many of our Christmas customs.
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