Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/412

 408 Rudwin our view that they are identical. But it must be admitted that the Carnival also shows a remarkable resemblance to the Saturnalia, 30 the similarity of which to the folk-festivals of Western Europe is in fact greater than would appear at first. A naval procession was probably also observed in ancient Rome during the Saturnalia prior to the arrival of the goddess Isis. Saturnus, the Assyrian god Baal or Bel, is said to have come up the Tiber into the region of Rome to visit Janus in a ship. 31 The name Saturnus, moreover, seems to point to a ploughing and sewing festival, 32 although how such a festival came to be held in mid- winter (December 17) must be a matter of conjecture. 33 Popular usage, however, extended this festival by degrees until it finally fell in the ploughing season. The Carnival amuse- ments in Venice reach back to December 26. The connection of the Roman Saturnalia with the Kelto- Germanic ploughing feast, if such a connection did exist, must have been of great importance for the dramatic evolution of its ritual. Traces of the Saturnalia may be seen in our celebration of Christmas. The modern Italian Carnival may also show some features of the celebration of the resurrection of Attis on March 25, which took the form of a Carnival at Rome and probably elsewhere. 34 This day is now celebrated as the Feast of Anunciation. The festival in the form it had acquired in Greece and Rome was carried across the Alps by the Romans, and became merged with a Kelto- Germanic festival of a similar character, though developed in a different way. 35 This theory will account for the fact that while in the Rhineland, as in Gaul, the Carnival has distinctly Roman features, the native Carnival customs are retained in their ancient character in other parts of Ger- 30 Frazer, op. tit., ix. 312, is of the opinion that the Saturnalia of ancient Rome and the Carnival of modern Italy are identical. For the connection of the Carnival, the Saturnalia and the Purim, the Jewish form of a Persian spring festival, and the Babylonian Sacaea cf. Frazer's article on Purim in the Encycl. Biblica iii. (1902) 3980s??. and P. Haupt's monograph Purim in the Beitr&ge z. Assyr. u. semit. Sprachwissenschaft vi. (1908); No. 2, pp. 25sq. 31 Cf. Usener, op. tit,, p. 127. 32 Cf. Frazer, op. tit., ix. 347. 33 Cf. Chambers, op. tit., i. 237. 34 Cf. Frazer, op. tit., v. 272sq.
 * Cf. Rademacher, "Carnival," (Hastings') Encycl. of Rel. & Eth. iii. 228b.