Christmas at the Time of the Empire

When we speak of a Catholic Italy we refer to the fusion of the religious traditions linked to Christ with the popular culture of today, fusion certainly favored by the presence of the Papacy within the peninsula that for over a millennium has also exercised its temporal power (the Papal State was created from the territorial concessions of the eighth century and ended in existence in 1870, following the capture of Rome).

This Christian culture has filled the calendar with festivities that fall in periods of the year in which pagan cults of Greco-Roman origin were practiced in ancient times, as well as logically being alongside the Jewish celebrations.

1. Representation of the Sol Invictus

After the conversion to Christianity, the Emperor Constantine decreed in 330 the celebration of the nativity of Christ making it coincide with the pagan feast of the birth of Sol Invictus, that identified various deities like Helios and Mithras and that constituted the pillar of Roman solar monotoeism. This cult actually originated in Syria and Egypt where solemn celebrations took place on the birth of the Sun, which foresaw the announcement by a virgin of the birth of a newborn baby that represented the Sun, that triumphed eternally over darkness.

2. Emperor Caracalla coin, on the back the Sun God

The cult of Sol Invictus, which was made official after the reunification of the Empire by Aurelian in 274 AD, was celebrated on 25 December and was part of a much older festival cycle: the Saturnalia.

Saturnalia were festivals of popular character in honor of the gods Saturn and Pluto who were believed to wander throughout the winter, when the earth was uncultivated, and by virtue of this, their wrath was to be appeased with the offering of gifts and the holding of feasts in their honor so that they could return to the afterlife and foster the harvest in the summer season.

The peculiarity of these events was the abolition of social distances: slaves were allowed to behave like free men, thus reversing the hierarchies; among them one was chosen as princeps, generally dressed in red and who had the task of running the party.

3. work by Lucas Cranach depicting the Golden Age (1530 AD)

What these festivals represented was the mythical golden age, whose legend holds the goal that, not only Christianity but all religions, should have set themselves: an era in which human beings lived in perfect syntax with nature, where there were no distinctions, no hatred, no wars.

Thus the Roman poet Ovid celebrated its grandeur: "The Golden Age flourished first;spontaneously, without the need for executioners, without the need for laws, loyalty and righteousness were honoured."

And again the Greek poet Hesiod: "as gods passed away with their minds free from anguish, far away, out of toil and misery;[...] all things beautiful they had."

Nowadays Christmas is recognized for its lights, its decorations, its banquets, the atmosphere that it transmits.Linear evolution of those festivals of remote times that unfortunately, with ours, have in common the desire to hypocritically represent what for the human being seems unrealizable: the Golden Age.