A Joyous Saturnalia

     With nothing to do as Christmas apraoches, I descided on some internet surfing to see what hidden meanings there might be in the approaching holiday. From some odd sites I found, a few new facts for the day:

“    "The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian, in his dialog entitled Saturnalia, describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked (a precursor of modern caroling), rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped flavored biscuits which are still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season. In the 4^th century, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it."

"The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders arbitrarily picked Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25^th, to be Jesus’ birthday. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.”

And the fun continued: “As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, 'It is not opportune to make any innovation.' “

“    
     "On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped.”

(    

     Imagine that: antisemitism in 19^th Century Poland! Who woulda believed it?

“    "Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim. The Christian custom of 'kissing under the mistletoe' is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult."

“Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681".

“In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.”






Ho, ho, ho........................