roman feast honouring the god saturn, occurring on the winter solstice. many of the trappings of christmas have a more than incidental relationship with the festival, along with other non-christian celebrations and events. there is a heated debate about all of this, see message boards more densely occupied by purist christians for some froth, if you like.
(
postbear has metal knees,
Tue 22 Aug 2006, 1:21,
archived)