December 17th marks the first day of the Roman holiday Saturnalia, a time of sacrificing, merrymaking, gift-giving, and contained social reversals.
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Image Source: André Castaigne, "The Roman Saturnalia"
"It is the month of December, and yet the City is at this very moment in a sweat. License is given to the general merrymaking. Everything resounds with mighty preparations, - as if the Saturnalia differed at all from the usual business day! So true it is that the difference is nil, that I regard as correct the remark of the man who said: 'Once December was a month; now it is a year.'"
— L. Annaeus Seneca, Epistle 1.1
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