Io saturnalia7/8/2023 ![]() Saturn was associated with the harvest and the mythical Golden Age in which everything was far better and so the festival was meant to give a taste of that, with decent food and more liberal social mores for the duration of the festival. It was, as the name suggests, primarily a festival in honour of the god Saturn, and the major part of the day would have been focused on the public rituals held at the temple of Saturn in the Forum. ![]() Now you have been sated with a drink, I will get into the details of Saturnalia. These are best drunk when brought to you unprompted by someone, and as they barely taste alcoholic they can quite quickly lead to a touch of sybaritic licence. Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass and dust with freshly grated nutmeg, or for a punchier twist a dusting of cayenne. So here is a drink that I feel fits:Ģ0ml Creme de Cacao (ideally the dark stuff)Ģ0ml Cream (single cream is most common, though I prefer the acidity of crème fraîche slackened with a dash of milk) Now before I get into the details, let me summarise that it was a time of excess, inversion of normal rules, and generally an excuse for a party. Saturnalia is often mentioned around Christmas as the festival that Christmas borrowed heavily from, yet other than mention of it being a Roman festival, details of it are often overlooked. It would be lovely for me to categorically state that Saturnalia was celebrated on the 17th with celebrations continuing till the 23rd, yet the complexity of Roman religion and converting dates from different calendars means that I will hedge my bets and say that it is likely that it was celebrated around then and you should treat all I say about it as a rough idea rather than any certainty. As promised this newsletter is focused on Saturnalia, or more truthfully uses it as an excuse for a few decadent cocktails and to discuss Roman drinking practices.
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