Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival, was initially celebrated on December 17. It honored Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and time. It gradually evolved into a week-long festive celebration.

An ancient Iranian god of the ... And much in the same way that Christmas seems to creep into shops earlier and earlier each year nowadays, Roman statesmen tried to limit the number of days ...

In ancient Rome, the exchange of gifts was accompanied ... Une si longue histoire ("Christmas: a very long history," Payot, 2016). Gift-giving was also found in some Celtic traditions, which ...

These days, Christmas roughly coincides with the winter solstice on Dec. 21. In ancient Rome, when people used a different version of the calendar, called the Julian calendar, the winter solstice ...

Although mulled wine is a staple of contemporary Christmas celebrations throughout ... prominent feature of the Saturnalia Festival in ancient Rome: the winter solstice celebration of the passing ...

Rome during the Christmas season is a feast for the senses. Twinkling lights drape over the city’s cobblestone streets, towering Christmas trees adorn piazzas, and Nativity scenes beckon from ...

On Christmas Eve, 1843, three ghosts visited Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens novella “A Christmas Carol” and changed Christmas forever. Dickens is often credited with “inventing ...

Christmas abroad for American seminarians studying in Rome can offer a chance to travel ... One of the plans is to go to the ancient Christian basilica of Aquileia, which has a number of ...

Crustula were so popular with ancient Roman writers that some even mentioned ... homemade and proved to be particularly popular during Christmas and carnival celebrations. Households would use ...