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Explanation: Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival of merrymaking, where the social order was turned ‘upside-down’ in celebration of the liberty granted by Saturn. People exchanged small gifts, dressed in outlandish outfits, played holiday games, and drank and feasted to excess.
Emperor Julian was the last pagan Emperor of Rome, who attempted to enforce tolerance for all faiths in the Empire - something which the Christians, who had enjoyed ~50 years as an empowered minority with Christian Emperors persecuting their enemies, the pagan majority of the Empire, regarded as a great offense.
EMPEROR JULIAN GAVE US BACK SATURNALIA
With thanks to @Deceptichum@quokk.au
Is this the reason why we created a big fat jolly old man in a red and white suit with a big beard and a bottle of Coca-cola to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Later invention, I’m afraid! German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast is often credited with the modern design of Santa Claus during the US Civil War, of all times.
That being said, many of the traditions of Christmas are linked to Saturnalia.
I always loved that about modern Christian holidays … they all pretend it has something to do with ancient biblical traditions … when all along it was just ancient pagan traditions
We have a breaded white man in a suit to celebrate the birth of Christ … and a Bunny Rabbit to celebrate his death … and we also like to take a day of the year to celebrate death, demons and the underworld on Halloween.
It’d be much cooler to celebrate liberty in December instead of some kid being born too, tbqh.
At this point … I think everyone does now. As soon as Halloween is over, it just rolls into ‘Spend! Spend! Spend!, honour thy Gods of finance!, fill your immediate desires and forget everything!!!’ … if you ask people about they bible and birth of Christ, they just nod and say ‘yeah, yeah, I know, I gotta buy another gallon of egg nog and order the latest Iphone’
Christianity is joke now at this point … many people associate themselves to it but most just pay lip service to it all and do whatever they want (even doing and saying things contrary to biblical teachings or ideals) believing that as long as they say they are followers of the religion, then everything’s OK. Ask your average Christian to recite the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ or name the ten commandments and most won’t know what you’re talking about.
How is “Io” pronounced? That is a capital “i” and not a lowercase “L”, correct?
Yep, capital I. “Yo” is how I usually hear it. I’ve seen it argued that “Ee-oh” is the appropriate pronunciation.
I always thought it was LO
good to know, I guess? Not sure if I’ll use that later in life but at least I’m a tiny bit less ignorant today.
