So are we really going to be celebrating Saturnalia on or around the 25th?

[cynatnite]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia

[Warpy]

1. Sure, why not?

If I had any kids around, it would be Yule/Santa Claus Xmas. Since I don't, it's either Festivus or Saturnalia.

I'll be eating Chinese food and watching some DVDs I've saved to get me through all the pious seasonal programming.

[trotsky]

2. The Winter Solstice - the REAL reason for the season.

Everything else was bolted on by religion.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!

Wool togas for winter.



Learned about Saturnalia in Latin class, many decades ago in high school.

[AlbertCat]

5. Wool togas for winter.

WARNING: I'm about to pontificate:

Most toga WERE made of wool. Wool and linen being the most common fibers back then. Silk was very expensive and cotton too, because the seeds had to be picked out by hand. And that's about it for fibers in the ancient world.

Also... a "true" toga is a circle.

The Greeks wore a Himation, which is rectangular. But y'know the points of the corners drag and are a pain so they began to get cut off. Etruscans wore a Tebenna, which is a 1/2 circle.

Roman Senators wore a white toga with a wide red border all the way around. The circle would be folded in half...but just off center so you got 2 red lines from the boarder... then wrapped and arranged according to custom.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Thanks for the fashion lesson.

We didn't hear those details in Latin class. Except that the pin that would hold it together at the shoulder was called a fibula.

[AlbertCat]

9. Thanks for the fashion lesson.

de nada

I used to design and make period costumes so I know all kinds of useless costume facts.

It is strange... and so unlike anything today, but every little detail back then has "meaning". The colors, the number of pleats on the left shoulder...etc etc. They didn't just throw it on. Wearing a red toga to the Olympus Ball could ruin you socially!

Seriously... I love that sort of "personal" history. Everyday life, y'know. Makes one glad to be alive today... not then!

[2ndAmForComputers]

4. I'm going to enjoy the children getting the toys, like every year.

Looking at that scene is like drinking concentrated happiness.

[progressoid]

10. Yes!

!

[AlbertCat]

6. I must say...

my favorite thing about the season is, I think, because of Christmas.

It's the only time of year where it is generally alright to listen to classical music in public.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. I like Christmas.

Well, at least most of it. That tiny bit that remains in our society about the birth of Christ doesn't even bother me. There is still the trees in the houses and the lights and the gifts and the meals and all the gawdy ornaments and tinsel and real mail in the mailbox with all those cards and egg nog and Santa. And who isn't excited about those giant blow-up Santas that everyone is putting out in the yards?

Besides, isn't Christmas really Saturnalia transformed into the birthday of the new Christian diety?

[Gore1FL]

11. Last year I celebrated Sol Invictus

This year I am wishing Isaac Newton a happy birthday. As far as I know, of all people born on December 25, Newton was the one who gave humanity the most.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. You'd love my posters!!!!

I painted them. Hubby helpfully printed the Title page of Principia Mathematica, and a couple of Newton's equations.

They baffled the neighbors. Anything baffles the folks around here.

[Taverner]

13. December 17th