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Not only was Saturn the god of abundance, I needed enough hats to correspond to the approximate number of people attending the opening reception. The only way this would work is if I made a lot of them-as many as possible. I imagined making hats out of terracotta and handing them out as gag gifts for gallery visitors. I was also very interested in the pileus cap as an embodiment of freedom and an object that comes in direct contact with the human body.
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Having learned all of this from Paul, the exhibition curator, and from a friend in classics at U of C, I considered making some ceramic gifts to hand out to people during the exhibition. Gag gifts made of terracotta were exchanged.
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Various people wore these hats during Saturnalia regardless of their social status some people cross dressed masters served their slaves. A common sight during Saturnalia was the pileus hat, a simple pointy felt cap normally worn by freed slaves. The holiday was celebrated with a large banquet, gift giving, a temporary break from social hierarchies, and lots of wild partying. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival that took place around the December solstice as a way of showing reverence to Saturn, the god of abundance and prosperity, agriculture, the seasons, and cycles of renewal.
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So why clay? Saturnalia called for clay, specifically terracotta. The last time I had done anything meaningful with ceramics was probably in 2012. By mid-November I was throwing around ideas and experimenting with clay. Although I was still preoccupied with another project at the time, I wanted to make something new for this show. The theme and title was Saturnalia, the ancient Roman predecessor of Christmas. To their credit, the plan worked, and all over the world, Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate Christmas during the former festival of Saturn.Sometime in October, Paul Hopkin invited me to include work in a December/January group exhibition at Slow Gallery. Christian missionaries simply substituted Saturn with Christ and pushed to have their own deity associated with the pre-existing festival. Rather than create their own festival in the springtime (the season which most Christian theologians believe to be the true birthday of Christ), they found it easier to adapt existing festivals and traditions to their own growing faith. To them, it was more important to grow their following than it was to get all of the stories of Christ exactly correct. So how did all of these staples of the holiday season make the jump from Saturnalia to Christmas? When Christianity became the dominant faith of the Roman Empire, Christian missionaries travelled all over Europe to spread the word of God. It can be hard to celebrate prosperity and life in the dead of winter when nothing grows, and so the pine tree, one of the only plants to stay green for the whole year, were decorated and even cut up into wreaths. In his account of the Roman holiday, the historian Lucian also highlights the common practice of consuming far too much alcohol before running door to door, singing songs for the neighbours. Saturnalia also saw gifts exchanged among families and friends, as well as an increase in the number of charitable donations, where the wealthy would help pay for the expenses of the poor. Just like today, court cases, matters of government and school lessons were put on hiatus until the festivities concluded. We no longer pray to Saturn on the darkest months of the year, but many of our other traditions directly carry over from their Roman roots.Īs part of Saturnalia celebrations, all public institutions closed their doors for the entirety of the festival. But rather than letting the dark months get to them, Romans would plan elaborate feasts on the darkest days of the year, to both remember the economic and agricultural prosperity that allowed them to survive the winter and to pray for prosperity in the future. Nothing grew, the sun set early and if you didn’t have fire or shelter, the cold nights could be some of your last. We have a planet named in his honour, a day of the week and, of course, the celebration we now call Christmas.īefore inventions like centralized heating and artificial light, December was one of the harshest months of the year. Saturn’s influence can still be seen all over western culture. The Roman Saturnalia celebrations highlighted the blessings of the Roman deity Saturn, who was known across the Roman Empire as the god of things like agriculture, time, prosperity and commerce. But what is less well known is that our Christmas traditions stretch back for hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, and can be traced to the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia. We all know the story of the first Christmas, the one with the star and the manger and the three wise men.