Completely satisfied Saturnalia! – #historical past #conspiracy
Immediately is Saturnalia, an historical Roman vacation with an extended custom right here on the Volokh Conspiracy. Admittedly, it is custom solely in as far as I’ve put up a publish about it each December 17 for the final a number of years. However, by web requirements, that is a very historical custom, certainly!
The Encyclopedia Romana has a useful description of Saturnalia:
In the course of the vacation, restrictions have been relaxed and the social order inverted. Playing was allowed in public. Slaves have been permitted to make use of cube and didn’t should work. . . Inside the household, a Lord of Misrule was chosen. Slaves have been handled as equals, allowed to put on their masters’ clothes, and be waited on at time for dinner in remembrance of an earlier golden age thought to have been ushered in by the god. Within the Saturnalia, Lucian relates that “Throughout My week the intense is barred; no enterprise allowed. Ingesting, noise and video games and cube, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing bare, clapping of frenzied arms, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water—such are the capabilities over which I preside.”
As is often the case, we have now no scarcity of robust candidates for the place of Lord of Misrule. Loads of politicians in each main events qualify, as do many different politically influential individuals.
Completely satisfied Saturnalia to all the chums, Romans, and Volokh Conspiracy readers on the market!
NOTE: Most of this publish is adopted from earlier Saturnalia posts.
