A Brief History
On December 17, 497 BC, the Romans celebrated their Pagan holiday, Saturnalia, a celebration honoring their god of agriculture (and a bunch of other things) with partying and sacrifice. Gift giving, feasts, partying and a carnival atmosphere surrounded Saturnalia.
Digging Deeper
Celebrations and holidays around the time of the Winter Solstice (December 21 on our calendar) are common throughout the ancient and modern world. Nowadays we have Christmas for Christians, a date that really has nothing to do with the birth of Christ but is believed by many to be chosen to compete with pagan and Jewish holidays.
In the Jewish faith and culture there is Hanukkah (pick your favorite spelling) that is celebrated December 6 through December 14 this year (2015). Also known as the Festival of Lights and less formally as Eight Crazy Nights (at least by Adam Sandler), the spelling and pronunciation has vexed Christian Americans for eternity.
In African-American culture, we also have Kwanzaa, a holiday invented by a convicted felon (Maulana Karenga) in 1965. Celebrated from December 26 through January 1, this holiday has had moderate success taking hold despite the fact that the target audience has ethnic roots in West Africa and much of the trappings of the holiday are actually East African, and despite the inventor’s legal issues.
Saturnalia is also a sort of festival of light, leading up to the Winter Solstice which is the shortest day of the year with the least amount of sunlight. It marks the period where after days will become longer and longer until the trend reverses at the Summer Solstice. Ancient Greeks had a similar happy time they called the Kronia.
Saturnalia continued in Roman culture through the 4th Century AD, when it was supplanted by the Christian holiday, Christmas. Other pagan cultures had similar celebrations of the Winter Solstice, as evidenced by the stones at Stonehenge being aligned with the sunset at the Winter Solstice and the ruins of Newgrange in Ireland aligned with sunrise of the Winter Solstice. Scandinavian and Germanic people also had similar celebrations lasting 12 days. It may have helped the party atmosphere that alcoholic drinks such as wine and hard cider would have been ready right about that time each year! The Orient, Middle East, and Slavic lands were also partial to a celebration around the time of the Winter Solstice, making it virtually universal in the world starting from Neolithic times.
On the Jerry Seinfeld television sitcom, Seinfeld, the term “Festivus for the Rest of Us” was coined in the 1997 episode, “The Strike”. This episode was meant to parody the other Winter Solstice timed holidays and is celebrated on December 23. It is said to be a non-commercial event celebrated around a plain aluminum pole and labeling simple everyday occurrences as “Festivus miracles.” (Works for me!)
Question for students (and subscribers): Do you celebrate any of these December holidays? Do you have a favorite? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Our Most Cherished Holiday. Vintage, 1997.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="12451 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=12451">26 Comments
It would be really cool if just for a few minutes we could go back in time to see how these civilizations lived. But alas, that is why it’s called history.
I am always wondering why some of these holidays are no longer celebrated today? what happened to them? and who decided they were no longer holidays? history is one never ending list of questions.
I am also wondering what happens to these holidays. What happens that all of a sudden they don’t exist anymore.
I think that it is sad that we still don’t celebrate some of the holidays. I also wonder why that is. I think it is weird people just stopped and didn’t want to carry them on.
Funny to know that people used holidays such as these as an excuse just to get drunk just like people still do today, only a lot of people today probably couldn’t explain the importance behind each holiday.
I am curious to why some of these arent celebrated anymore or a least really heard of.
Nothing i love more is another holiday. Lets take this to the government and get some honey baked hams ready…
I think it is really cool to think about all of the other holidays that could have existed besides this one. I wish they were put on the calendar and I had heard of them before.
I’m all for finding out about other holidays. We all gotta be respectful to everyone’s holidays and whatever they celebrate.
Whatever holiday you celebrate is awesome, it’s neat to see what others believe in and the traditions they follow. I find it fascinating to learn about ancient holidays as we don’t hear anything about them anymore.
I think it is very cool and interesting to learn about other holidays that I personally do not celebrate. I am perfectly fine with other religions and people practicing different holidays than me because it makes all of us unique.
I had heard about Saturnalia before but not the Ancient Greek equivalent. It’s interesting to hear about the universal nature of the festivities.
Having learned about this in a History of Christmas class I find the connection between ancient holidays and modern ones very interesting.
I appreciate and support all holidays
One of my friends actually just invited me to do a “Festivus for the Rest of Us” party. I never watched Seinfield so I was originally very unfamiliar of this holiday. I am always in favor of holidays because they remind us about what is important in life, happiness.
I wish that people’s general kind moods wouldn’t only occur around holidays, but throughout the year. It would be so nice if everyone was in the “Christmas spirit” all year.
I like all holidays but Christmas is my favorite.
I love the Seinfeld episode mentioned in this article! Such a great show!
We draw a lot of ritual and tradition in our modern holidays from the old Solstice festive gatherings. It was a way to help the pagans convert, it was something already known to them so an easy transition.
I celebrate Christmas in the way of gift giving and seeing family. But by far Halloween is my favorite holiday/day ever.
It would be a good thing for people to be giving year round rather than only on holidays.
christmas has changed completely. It is supposed to be about family and giving and now it just greediness and wanting.
Christmas is my personal favorite holiday.
Its interesting to see what past cultures did to celebrate as we don’t hear about that very often.
I celebrate christmas but cannot forget that it is about jesus’s birth and not about gifts!
Hopefully one day children will have the true meaning of Christmas shown to them instead of just the current present receiving