Saturnalia was a Roman holiday that celebrated the God Saturn ([[Macrobius2011-nk]]), this 3-day celebration started on December 17th and centered around farming-related rituals and gift offerings/sacrifices to the Gods. It was later extended to December 23th and possibly to December 25th by Domitian ([[Macrobius2011-ag]],[[Salusbury2009-jp]] ) Some accounts mention the rich paying rent for the poor, masters and slaves exchanging clothes, and so forth on Saturnalia. Yet, for most of history, debauchery seems to dominate celebrations of the holiday; in fact, the word Saturnalia became synonymous with immorality and carousing. While Saturnalia does predate Christmas, and it is possible that some practices like gift-giving may have influenced the same traditions with Christmas, it is unlikely that Christmas's origins have anything to do with Saturnalia: [[Lavan2011-tf| Gwynn]] concludes: > [!quote] [[Church2017-mx]] >"The majority of modern scholars would be reluctant to accept any close connection between the Saturnalia and the emergence of the Christian Christmas...Its timing does not align well with December 25 or January 6 dates for Christmas, and it's very unlikely to have had any influence on the church's adoption of either date’> The connection between Saturnalia and Christmas has been a topic of debate among scholars and historians. While Saturnalia predates the Christian holiday and shares the practice of gift-giving, experts like Gwynn and Scott Church argue against a direct link between the two. They highlight that the timing of Saturnalia does not align precisely with the established dates of Christmas and assert that it is unlikely Saturnalia had any significant influence on the creation or timing of Christmas celebrations. This consensus among contemporary scholars suggests that while cultural practices may overlap, the origins and significance of Christmas as a Christian celebration remain distinct from the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia.