Prior to the establishment of Christmas as a holiday celebrating Jesus’ birth, the most widely celebrated holiday in Rome revolved around the agricultural God, Saturn. During Saturnalia, the regular Roman social hierarchy was turned around and for a month, masters served their slaves. Businesses, courts, and schools were closed, so everyone could participate in festivities involving excessive eating, dancing, singing, sporting, card playing, and gambling. Instead of togas, people wore colorful clothes, and slaves wore a felt cap that symbolized their freedom and liberty for the season. The environment was one of ‘Hakuna Matada’. This mentality for the season stemmed from the fact that Saturn ruled during the Golden Age, a time when people were oblivious to death, and lived in peace and harmony. To celebrate Saturn, people acknowledged this time period. In Saturnalia by Lucian, the god’s priest declares “during my week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking and being drunk, noise and games and dice, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing naked, clapping of tremulous hands, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water,--such are the functions over which I preside.”

The rising popularity of Saturnalia led to growing concerns of the Church about the dominance of pagan religions. …show more content…
In 1818, Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent which was a series of stories about Christmas celebrations in an English manor house. In these stories, a squire invited peasants into his house, and they got along well, happily celebrating unlike current status in America. Irving depicted Christmas as a peaceful holiday that brought groups together from different social standings. He reinvented the way people viewed Christmas, by implying in his writing that this was actually how Christmas