Brumalia, Another old forgotten pagan holiday.

The Roman Holiday that few speak of.

Welcome to my Blog, I am Elhoim and this is my post, do not forget to share it.

The name of Brumalia comes from brvma, [ˈbruːma], "Winter solstice" or "Winter cold". The Brumalis festivities were the ancient winter solstice festivals instituted by Romulus in honor of Libero/Liber Pater (the god of fertility, viticulture, wine, and freedom) or Bacchus (the god of the winemaking and wine, vegetation, religious ecstasy, and festivity), honoring at the same time to Saturn/Cronus and Ceres/Demeter. 

Brumalia was probably a derivation of the ancient Greek festivals of the Leneas (Λήναια) held during the month of Leneón, a month that elapsed between what is actually now January and February and dedicated to Dionysus, during these festivities excesses were made in the drinking of wine and in the liberalization of customs. These celebrations of Brumalia used to start on November 24 and lasted for a month, ending with the arrival of Saturnalia. The festival included night-time feasting, drinking, and merriment.

The Celebration

The Brumales were festivities during this low light and hot halftime season related to the months that currently correspond to November and December.

Farmers sacrificed their pigs to Saturn and Ceres, Gods of agriculture and vegetation, vintners sacrificed goats in honor of Bacchus (or Dionysus in the Hellenistic world), those in charge of public posts gave honey, wine, and olive oil to the priests of Ceres.

What happens in the Byzantine Period?

For the Byzantine period, approximately in the fifth century, the historian Juan Lido (born in the year 490) tells us in his book “De mensibus”, how this celebration flourished in Constantinople, in the Eastern Roman Empire, where it was called "Festival of Cronos" (the Greek name for Saturn) beginning on November 24 until the inauguration of Saturnalia on December 17, each of these 24 days assigned with a letter of the Greek alphabet. During this festival it was customary to celebrate each friend on the day of the initial letter of his name, in addition to killing a pig, a custom also shared in ancient Saturnalia. Other authors, such as Forcellini and Cumont, interchange dates or assimilate one party to the other, using Saturnalia and Brumalia as synonyms.

Juan Lido also tells us how it was a date related to "chthonic demons" (pagan deities) for which he had the disapproval of the Church. This sounds strange because, despite the antipaganism that is always found, we have many texts that show us how until the middle of the 10th century there are still references to this non-Christian ritual.

Agathias reports uncensored in 577 how the Brumales were celebrated in Constantinople after an earthquake. It is also known, by Coricio de Gaza, Oración XIII, that the festival was celebrated in the 6th century during the reign of Emperor Justinian I where the prospects for the rest of winter were prophesied. the emperor who, on the other hand, persecuted paganism. In 521 he held his first consulate with the Brumales on a copious and lavish scale with banquets and shows throughout the Empire.

The emperor felt no problem in celebrating these popular rites as long as no specifically pagan sacrifices or cults were practiced since the festival was already a secular part of the day-to-day life of his people and his court.

Another Background

There are stories for which there is certain evidence but their veracity is doubted, such as the narration of the Antiocheno chronographer Juan Malalas, born in 491, and the one based according to him on the Roman analyst Licinio Macer, who tells that his origins They came from a small celebration instituted since the time of Romulus, to mitigate the disgrace felt after his stepfather Faustulo offered him bread, since it was customary that bread was only eaten with a relative, and thus it was a date where everyone gave entertainment to someone outside his family, being a story that tries a posteriori to give a meaning to the word Broumalia by relating it to the Greek βρομός food. Balzamon and Tzetzes, Greek writers of the modern age, suggest that it was a Roman tradition already mixed with the Dionysian festivities typical of the Hellenic world.

During this time, prophetic indications were taken as prospects for the remainder of the winter.

The holiday was celebrated at least until the 11th century in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, as recorded by Christopher of Mytilene. No references exist after the 1204 sacking of the capital by the Fourth Crusade.

NOTE: We also have variations of the date; For the German historian Theodor Mommsen, the Brumales would begin on November 24 and end on December 25, the day of the mist. Other authors say that the Brumales were celebrated twice a year, on March 12 and on September 18, and that they were also called hiematia.

Some Ref:

• Diccionario histórico enciclopédico, Vicenç Joaquín Bastús i Carrera, 1828.
•  Alan Watts, Mitos, sueños y religión, 1998, p. 138.