Saturday, January 5, 2013

'What a Saturnalia it's been!"




As i've written about before, the winter date of Christmas is strongly influenced by the Roman holiday Saturnalia, which occurred on Dec. 17. Saturnalia was celebrated with gift-giving, eating and a "carnival atomsphere that overturned Roman social norms," to quote Wikipedia.

Mary Beard, in the character of a Roman priestess, has a 'look back' at this year's Saturnalia. This is pretty much the lecture style I aspire to in introductory classes :) Read her blog entry about the experience here.
Pin It

No comments: