The festival of Saturnus himself occurred on December 17th, and
was a barbarous and joyous harvest-home, a time of absolute relaxation
and unrestrained merriment, when distinctions of rank were forgotten,
and crowds thronged the streets crying, _Io Saturnalia!_ even slaves
wearing the _pileus_ or skullcap, emblem of liberty, and all throwing
off the dignified toga for the easy and comfortable _synthesis_,
perhaps a sort of tunic.
Other festivals were devoted to Vulcanus, god of fire, without whose
help the handicraftsmen thought they could not carry on their work; and
Neptunus, god of the ocean and the sea, to whom sailors addressed their
prayers, and to whom commanders going out with fleets offered
oblations. Family life was not likely to be forgotten by a people among
whom the father was the first priest, and accordingly we find that
every house was in a certain sense a temple of Vesta, the goddess of
the fireside, and that as of old time the family assembled in the
atrium around the hearth, to partake of their common meal, the renewal
of the family bond of union was in later days accompanied with acts of
worship of Vesta, whose actual temple was only an enlargement of the
fireside, uniting all the citizens of the state into a single large
family.
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