Io Saturnalia!
Posted by Dave Bath on 2008-12-20
It’s time to wish all readers a safe and enjoyable festive season, as we are now in the middle of Saturnalia, which is as good a way as any for a skeptical ex-Latin-student to label this period, especially one who’ll be off-line during other seasonal festivals.
For those who don’t know, Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival, running from (depending on calendrical oddities) the 17th through the 23rd of December. It was a time for mucking about, gift giving, and, almost unique in human history, a time when masters and slaves swapped places… and therefore a good reason NOT to be unkind to your butlers, cooks, et al during the year.
Maybe that’s a tradition worth reviving, but with the wage slaves ordering their slavedrivers about for a week, or at least with the wage slaves getting on with things without managers interrupting with useless meetings. You never know, it might even be the time for the best business decisions!
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