Roman Festival, Saturnalia

In Rome, where winters were not as harsh as those in the far north, Saturnalia (a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture) was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a time when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, slaves would become masters. Peasants were in command of the city. Business and schools were closed so that everyone could join in the fun.

Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. For some Romans, Mithra's birthday was the most sacred day of the year.


During the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to use dice and did not have to work. Instead of the toga, less formal dinner clothes were permitted, as was the pileus, a felt cap normally worn by the manumitted slave that symbolized the freedom of the season. 

"Who were...?" Wednesday

The Picts

(possibly meaning "painted" or "tattooed")

I have always been fascinated by history and for sometime, this group has held my interest. A cousin of mine has been researching our family tree for several years and has traced one branch all the way back to the 1590's in the Scottish region Aberdeenshire.  Now, I'm by no means making the leap that somehow my family tree may stretch back to the time of the Pict's but in a random flight of fancy I thought I would research this group a little further, just because.  Please feel free to comment if you can add to the sketchy information that I've been able to dig up...

The first ever written record of the people known as the Picts came from Roman sources. In 297 A.D. the orator Eumenius referred to the Britons as "...already being accustomed to the Picti and Hiberni as enemies."... meaning that they had probably been present in society for some time and some linguistic evidence suggests they spoke a type of Celtic language. All accounts that I have read indicate the Pict's as a warrior people and historians do know that they were mighty sailors as there are some texts mentioning that the Romans feared the Pictish Navy.

It is unknown what the Picts called themselves and all historians haveis a name which may have been derived from the Latin picti, which means ‘painted’. Other pieces of evidence, like the Irish name for the Picts, ‘Cruithne’, which also means ‘painted’ leads us to believe that the Picts practiced body painting, if not actual tattooing. The Picts had a distinct artistic style that remains in carvings and metalwork. 

Strangely, Pictish symbols usually occur in pairs and around fifty pairs are known. Of these are animals such as the salmon, deer and bull... birds like the eagle and goose... “monsters” such as the infamous Pictish Beast and more enigmatic designs such as the crescent and V rod, comb and mirror and double disk. The Pictish symbol stones are generally found in the north-east of Scotland, with clusters found along the eastern coasts and into the Highlands.


Sadly,there is little else left of the Picts besides their carvings, save a text left  called the  king-list, which gives the names and the lengths of the reigns of 60 or more Pictish kings. The list ends with Causantin mac Cinaeda, who died in 876.

Tehuti Is Just Another Name

The name Thoth is translated as "lord of the holy words" and is the ibis headed god of the Greco-Roman peoples. In Egypt, he is known by the name Tehuti (or Djehuti) and is the patron of science, literature, wisdom and inventions. It is said that he invented the things like arithmatic, geometry, heiroglyphics, magic, medicine, music, surgery, surveying, wind and stringed instuments and writing. You might call him a jack of all science trades!

Thoth's role as mediator is well-documented. It is he who questions the souls of the dead about their deeds in life before their heart is weighed against the feather of MaatHe was even sent by Ra to speak with Tefnut and ask her to return when she abdicated her position and went to Nubia. He is also the great counselor and the other gods frequently went to him for advice.

Thoth is an unusual god and though some stories place him as a son of Ra, others say that Thoth created himself through the power of language. He is the messenger of the gods (and thus identified by the Greeks with Hermes) and the divine record-keeper and mediator.Thoth is considered a lunar deity and is often depicted wearing the lunar crescent on his head. There is a story told of how Thoth won a portion of Khonsu's light, and this may be the reason. As a lunar deity his totem animal is the baboon, a nocturnal animal that goes to sleep only after greeting the new day.