5 Ways To Celebrate Saturnalia
Saturnalia Craft - make cerei candles from LED tea lights decorated with washi tape, ribbon, stickers, wrapping paper scraps or markers and take them home to give as a gift.
Saturnalia was celebrated in Ancient Rome on the 17th of December and could last for two weeks. During the Saturnalia season, everything was topsy-turvy. The servants became the masters and a mock king was appointed to rule over the chaos of the holiday. There are lots of fun ways to celebrate Saturnalia in your classroom, while incorporating some engaging history lessons.
Here are five ways you can celebrate Saturnalia in your classroom.
Traditional Greeting: From the beginning of Saturnalia until Christmas break, use the seasonal Saturnalia greeting of Io Saturnalia.
Swapping Roles: During Saturnalia Romans swapped roles, so why not have your students teach you a class? Split your students into around 15 groups and each group teaches a short lesson about one of the Ancient Roman gods or goddesses and thinks of a related test question. At the end, the class compiles a test for the teacher.
Festive Clothes: Encourage your students to wear colorful clothes during class celebrations, or wear something colorful over their clothes like a scarf or a shawl. Romans wore special colorful clothing over their tunics, called synthesis, during Saturnalia.
Candles and Figurines: Ancient Romans gave small gifts in the Saturnalia season. These gifts were often wax taper candles called cerei or terracotta figurines called signillaria. Students could decorate LED flameless tea lights with washi tape, ribbon, stickers, wrapping paper scraps or markers and take them home to give as a gift, or make small clay sculptures as gifts.
Mock King: Cut a piece of paper into enough squares so there is one for each student. On one square, write Saturnalicius princeps. Each student draws a piece of paper and the student who draws this square is Mock King or the Lord of Misrule. During Saturnalia in Ancient Rome, the Saturnalicius princeps could make mischief by giving silly orders and causing chaos, but you could give them a choice of silly options to choose from like “tell the teacher to stand on one leg” or “sing Jingle Bells for the class”. You can select a new mock king each day of Saturnalia.
