The Festive Spirit, Classical Style

Gary Corby writes books.

He’s been fascinated by ancient history since he was a teenager.  What those guys got up to thousands of years ago was just as exciting and even more bizarre than any modern thriller, with the added fun that it really happened.  He also loves the puzzles of murder mysteries and has read piles of them.  So he’s combined the ancient world with puzzle whodunits to create an historical mystery series set in classical Greece.

Gary lives in Sydney, Australia, with one wife, two daughters, and four guinea pigs.  His daughters tell him he must now include the two budgies they recently adopted.

You can catch Gary on his blog, on twitter where he is GaryCorby, on GoodReads, or email him at gary.corby@gmail.com.

Thanks to Lelia for having me on Buried Under Books.  I write murder mysteries set in the ancient world, and since we’re so close to Christmas, I though I’d talk about how the festive season used to be done, classical-style.

You’ll probably point out that Christmas, being the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was most unlikely to have been celebrated before the lad in question was born, and you’d be right.  But Christmas was built on top of a much more ancient pagan holiday.  This sort of thing is very much the norm.  The bunny rabbits and eggs of Easter, for example, come direct from a Germanic fertility goddess known as Eostre.

Christmas in like manner comes from the most popular holiday on the Roman calendar.  A lovely time called Saturnalia.

Saturnalia was the Roman festival in honor of…you guessed it…Saturn.  During Saturnalia friends gave each other presents. There was much merry-making, partying, eating and drinking.  Sound familiar?

It was the time of Misrule, when everything was turned upside down.  Slaves dressed in their masters’ clothes, and lounged about the house, and gave orders to their owners and were served banquets.  You can imagine how much the slaves would have enjoyed that.

Saturnalia began on December 17th (by our dating) and went for a week. It was only a couple of days originally, but the festival just kept getting longer and longer because everyone loved it so much. It reached the point where two Roman Emperors even tried to reduce the holiday, but everyone ignored the boring old guys and kept partying.

Saturnalia didn’t include Christmas trees. Christmas trees are pagan German, associated with the winter solstice festival Yule, which is a different thing again, and they came into the English speaking world only recently, probably during the Napoleonic Wars.

Just as we go about wishing everyone Happy Christmas, so the Romans staggered home in the wee hours, wishing everyone joy with the words, Io Saturnalia!  The Io part is pronounced much like the modern Yo!  Ironically, if you want to sound classical at Christmas, you need to sound like a rapper.

So Christmas is Roman.  The jolly man in the red suit, however, was a Greek.  Today we spell his name St Nicholas, but the original was a chap named Saint Nicolaos, which is the Greek spelling of same.  Like most ancient names, it has a meaning.  The Nico part comes from Nike, an ancient Greek word that means Shoe Factory Victory.  The –laos part means “of the people”.  Saint Nicolaos then is Saint “Victory of the people”.

By sheer coincidence, Nicolaos is the name of my detective-hero.  My Nicolaos is the elder brother of Socrates.  His adventures begin in 460BC.  There’s no relation between him and the saint, who came along 700 years later.  Nicolaos in fact has been a common name for many thousands of years.  But Santa Claus comes direct from dear old St Nick.  The Santa part of Santa Claus is obviously Saint.  The Claus part comes from the –colaos part of Nicolaos.

So I wish you all a fantastic holiday, and may Santa Claus be good to you.

Io Saturnalia!

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December 20, 2011   Posted in: Guest Blogs

6 Responses

  1. Fran Stewart - December 20, 2011

    What a fun post! I haven’t celebrated the chaos part of Christmas for about 20 years. One year I decided to give up cards and trees and cookies and non-stop shopping — and haven’t regretted it one bit. The Solstice is more along the lines of what I want to celebrate.

    But this Saturnalia stuff sounds like fun…

  2. Gary Corby - December 20, 2011

    Glad you like it, Fran!

    There are still plenty of people around who celebrate the solstice. There are even a few who know to shout Io Saturnalia!

  3. Jacqueline Seewald - December 21, 2011

    A very interesting post and perfect for the holiday season.
    I love historical mysteries!

    Wishing you every success,

    Jacqueline Seewald
    THE TRUTH SLEUTH

  4. Gary Corby - December 21, 2011

    Thanks Jacqeline, and the same to you!

  5. Lelia - December 22, 2011

    As a lover of history, I’ve always known about Saturnalia but not in this much depth. Gary, thank you for sharing this ;) And to all mystery and historical fiction readers out there, if you haven’t started Gary’s series yet, you’re missing a real treat!

  6. Gary Corby - December 22, 2011

    Thanks so much for having me here, Lelia. It’s been a pleasure.

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