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Did Christmas really evolve from the Saturnalia festival?

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Some of the traditional elements of the celebration of Christmas seem to have derived from Saturnalia, but to pretend the whole festival is purely from this pagan tradition is nonsense. The claim is often made that “Christmas is celebrated on December 25 because that was the Roman feast of Saturnalia”. It wasn't. read more

So gift-giving, feasting, drinking and general partying with friends and family, which had all been part of Saturnalia, became part of Christmas. But several Christmas traditions which are often attributed to Saturnalia actually did not come from that festival. The Romans didn’t decorate trees, for example, despite what some popular articles claim. read more

Saturnalia originated as a farmer’s festival to mark the end of the autumn planting season in honour of Saturn (satus means sowing). Numerous archaeological sites from the Roman coastal province of Constantine, now in Algeria, demonstrate that the cult of Saturn survived there until the early third century AD. read more

A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. read more

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