"From Saturnalia to Carnival: the solstitial crisis and the end of year celebrations"

The Sulfur Society
is pleased to present
for the cycle of meetings
"Aperitifs of the Unusual"

"From Saturnalia to Carnival: the solstitial crisis and the end of year celebrations"

Wednesday 18 December 2019

PARMA

Arci Doormats

Borgo S. Caterina, 1 (Via Blixio), 43125

From 19.30 to 21.00 Aperitif with Buffet
From 21.00 to 22.30 Conference
Cost 10,00 euros (including Buffet)

• Speaker:
  Marco Maculotti, founder and curator of AXIS world, online magazine of traditional studies, anthropology of the sacred, history of religions, folklore, esotericism, literature of the fantastic.

Since ancient times, man has considered time from a cyclical point of view: as Mircea Eliade said, "the archaic man felt in solidarity with the cosmos and cosmic rhythms, while the modern one feels in solidarity only with history". In the ritual practice of traditional societies, this cosmological vision emerged above all on the occasion of the "winter solstice crisis", when the Sun seemed to sink behind the horizon: this was the moment of the year in which orgiastic, apotropaic rituals such as the "expulsion »Of the winter demon and initiatory ones. With these rituals the archaic man periodically abolished history thanks to the repetition of cosmogony and the "regeneration of time". From Roman Saturnalia to modern Christmas and Carnival, we see how these end-of-winter celebrations have changed over the centuries, while keeping alive - even if often only symbolically - the ancient spirit.