Most people realize that many of our holiday rituals descend from pagan traditions. Much of the winter festivities come to us from the Germanic Yule season, but some recognizable aspects can be traced all the way to the ancient Romans, whose Saturnalia has influenced our modern solstice-centered celebrations of Christmas and New Year. Feasts, gift-giving, and drunken revelry were major activities. After Christianization, baudier elements were ejected, which then settled into their own holiday a week later. Still, drunken merriment is a far older custom than midnight mass. If you find your company's Christmas party to be an embarrassing mess, just remember that it is a continuation of millennia of western tradition. (You Scrooge, you.)
A couple major facets of Saturnalia have largely been lost. One is the "King of Saturnalia," who was chosen to "rule" over the festivities. In the Grinch movie, the Whos elect a Holiday Cheermeister, so apparently the tradition hasn't been totally forgotten. It is also echoed in a number of drinking games. The custom of role reversal also has faded in our egalitarian society. In Rome, hierarchies and social norms were relaxed, and masters would prepare a dinner for their slaves. The theme is echoed in the famous Charles Dickens tale, where the ghosts of Christmas treat the rich aristocrat to a lesson in humility. Romans would endlessly chant the phrase "Yo Saturnalia!" during the festival. I suspect that the vocalization has given way to our unison cheer of "Happy New Year" when the ball drops, and maybe our habit of wishing everyone a Merry Christmas as well. The holiday included a sacrifice to Saturn (Kronos) - a scythe-wielding god of agricultural bounty, among other things. In our era, Christmas is a time of charitable giving.
Saturn was one of the most important gods, perhaps only second to his son Jupiter (Zeus), who survived despite Saturn's tendency to eat his own children as soon as they were born. Saturn was believed to have ruled in an ancient Golden Age, where the land provided freely in a similar way to the Garden of Eden, and was supplanted by Jupiter, a sky god who served punishment with thunderbolts from on high. Saturn came to be associated as a god of time, likely because the Greek version's name was a homonym for their word for time (chronos). Saturn was Father Time, and an influence for wizardry lore.
The most-encountered legacy of Saturn is the day that still bears his name: Saturday. The Greek concept of naming the days for celestial gods was adopted by all the western world, and even far-flung realms like China. This can easily be seen if we consider the days of the week in English (Germanic) as well as Latin-derived Spanish. Sunday and Monday are sun and moon days. In Spanish, El Domingo and Lunes. The next is Martes, the day of Mars. In English, Tuesday comes from the Norse God Tiw, whose name comes from the PIE root Dyeus - also the root for Zeus and Jupiter (dyeus pater). That is, it's no coincidence that Tuesday and Zeusday sound similar. The next day is Miercoles - Mercury - or Woden's (Odin) day. Next is Jueves, from Jupiter, which in Norse became Thor's day. The Spanish Viernes is named for the goddess Venus, and similarly Friday is named from the Germanic goddess Frigg.
Interestingly (if you find this all interesting), the only day of the week that English took directly from Latin is the only one that the Romance languages replaced entirely, with the Hebrew word Sabbath. Whereas the Spanish days are the direct Latin roots plus one change for Christianity, English days are a hodgepodge of Norse, Germanic, and Latin deities, with no apparent Christian influence.
Saturn has left quite a legacy, we even name the best day of the week after him. As it turns out, Christmas is older than Christ, and New Year is older than the Gregorian calendar. I think the "put Christ back in Christmas" camp is trying to appropriate a holiday that isn't really theirs to take. Christ was tacked on to Christmas, an older holiday descended from Saturnalia and Yule. If we're really going to get serious about getting back to basics, then we'd need to be worshipping Saturn and Odin as well as Jesus. There's no reason a pagan shouldn't celebrate Christmas, or an atheist for that matter. I say even the Jew should feel free to come to the table (although we'll be keeping our eye on him). There's no reason to create different-but-similar holidays like Hanukkah, which is a stupid holiday and inferior to Christmas and all the Jewish kids know it. Christmas is an old western tradition, and any people wanting to celebrate western tradition can choose what they want from it. So put up a tree, give some presents, and get fershnickered at your holiday party. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Yo Saturnalia!
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