Happy Saturnalia—2020!

Continuing a longstanding Volokh Conspiracy tradition of celebrating this ancient Roman holiday.

Today is Saturnalia, an ancient Roman holiday with a long tradition here at the Volokh Conspiracy, which we are now continuing at our new home with Reason. Admittedly, it's  tradition only in so far as I have put up a post about it every December 17 for the last several years. But, by blogosphere standards, that's a truly ancient tradition, indeed!

The Encyclopedia Romana has a helpful description of Saturnalia:

During the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to use dice and did not have to work. . . Within the family, a Lord of Misrule was chosen. Slaves were treated as equals, allowed to wear their masters' clothing, and be waited on at meal time in remembrance of an earlier golden age thought to have been ushered in by the god. In the Saturnalia, Lucian relates that "During My week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking, noise and games and dice, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing naked, clapping of frenzied hands, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water—such are the functions over which I preside."

As is often the case, we have no shortage of strong applicants for the position of Lord of Misrule. A particularly formidable one is on his way out of the White House. But he may not disappear from the political scene entirely. And, even if he does, there are many other worthy competitors for the "honor."

Happy Saturnalia to all the friends, Romans, and Volokh Conspiracy readers out there!

NOTE: Much of this post is adopted from Saturnalia posts from previous years.

Comments

[Dr. Ed 2]

And an even more formidable one is cheating his way into the White House.

[Cal Cetín]

Hanukkah continues until tomorrow, where you celebrate the *defeat* of pagan tyrants.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Note also, this particular Saturnalia comes during the season of an extraordinary grand conjunction, of Saturn and Jupiter. On December 21 they will appear closer in the sky than they have at any times since the 13th century. They are already close enough to be worth noting. Look to the southwest shortly after sunset, about two vertical fists at arms length above the horizon.

[Cal Cetín]

Where does Uranus fit into this?

[Kevin Smith]

Fortunately for the rest of us, Uranus cannot be seen with the naked eye

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Careful . . . the proprietor is touchy about vulgar puns.

If you are a conservative, though, I doubt you would be censored.

[arch1]

Actually Uranus is sometimes naked eye visible depending on conditions, orbital timing relative to Earth, Moon, and Sun, etc. For example, during the 2nd week in Sept. 2020 its apparent magnitude of 5.7 made it visible with good eyes and a dark sky if you knew exactly where to look (a rough cutoff for naked eye visibility is 6.0, with dimmer objects having numerically larger magnitudes).

This despite the fact that for nonluminous bodies such as Uranus which are much further from Sun than Earth is, their apparent brightness varies as 1/r^4 rather than 1/r^2 (as is apparent upon, er, reflection:-) )

[Dr. Ed 2]

Stephen — if one looks at it objectively, do you realize how many signs we have of the 2nd Coming?

[DaivdBehar]

Ilya was misled by the NY way of talking of Trump. But, Trump kept his promises, and was one of the greatest Presidents in history, just under Washington in success. The Democrat Governors sought to destroy the stock market and employment, under the influence of the tech billionaires. They did not like the loss of profits coming from wage pressures. They made an extra $trillion in profits from their lockdowns. This is the biggest mass murder in history, with 130 million deaths from starvation from the $4 trillion loss of world GDP.

[Longtobefree]

Well, in keeping with their traditions of disrespecting all religions, democratic governors and mayors are NOT relaxing ANY restrictions AT ALL this year.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah

[y81]

How long, Lord, will we be forced to endure Prof. Somin’s tedious TDS rants?

[Sarcastr0]

My gift to the 80% of the Conspiracy commentarial who are classics nerds:

Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens
https://twitter.com/CSMFHT

["Paul"]

I think you mean “Happy Saturnalia—2773.”

[MatthewSlyfield]

Don’t you mean “Happy Saturnalia — MMDCCLXXIII”

[Milhouse]

The Talmud (Avoda Zara 8a) describes Saturnalia as an eight-day festival leading up to the winter solstice, followed immediately by the eight-day festival of Calendaria (which would therefore end on the Calends of January).

It attributes the origin of all winter solstice celebrations to Adam. He and Eve sinned in September, and he soon noticed that the days were getting shorter and shorter. He assumed that this was the punishment for their sin, and that eventually the daylight would disappear altogether and the world would end. When he noticed that the shrinkage of the daylight had slowed and then stopped, and then reversed itself, he assumed they had been forgiven, so he celebrated.

The next year when he saw the pattern repeat itself he understood that this was merely a natural cycle, and began observing the solstice as an annual holiday to remember the relief he felt that first time.

[Toranth]

Does Somin not realize that blogging – by that very name! – is more than 20 years old at this point? Repeating a post a few times does not come anywhere close to “ancient tradition”.

[Doug Huffman]

LOL. What is Saturnalia with a mask on?

The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.

Share the Kiss of Peace.