# Saturnalia

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saturnalia/221586>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 29, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saturnalia/221586 "2003-12-29T15:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fmellman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@fmellman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fmellman)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saturnalia/221586/1 "2003-12-29T15:15:36Z")

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I vaguely remember seeing a Discovery Channel show where they said that one of the first Christian Roman Emperors changed the date of Christmas to coincide with Saturnalia in order to encourage conversion of the Roman people. Better to have them celebrating the wholesome birth of Jesus than the debauched celebration of Bauccus.

Anyone else see this/know anything about this or am I just remembering wrong?

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saturnalia/221586/2 "2003-12-29T18:54:49Z")

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It’s a frequently-encountered guess.

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saturnalia/221586/3 "2003-12-29T20:44:13Z")

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Link to the article referred:  
[Why do we celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_034b.html)