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We threw strange parties: a garden party with a “make your own hat” bar, a dinner party full of spontaneous performance art and a birthday party called Lord Pontchartrain’s Cosmic Saturnalia.

Ancient Romans celebrated the winter solstice with Saturnalia, a seven-day festival that involved giving presents, decorating houses with plants, and lighting candles.

"Soldiers here in Chester would likely have honoured the Saturnalia and particularly welcomed the fact that it would have afforded them some days off," she said.

First, there was Saturnalia, which included feasting and gift exchange and preceded a December 25 celebration of Sol Invictus, a Roman sun god.

A Roman gift guide for the celebration of Saturnalia by the first-century poet Martial included several texts on parchment, including works by Virgil and Cicero and Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.”