Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Saturn, held

on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities

through to 23 December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the
Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by
private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that
overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters
provided table service for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for
both slaves and freedmen alike.[1] A common custom was the election of a
"King of the Saturnalia", who would give orders to people, which were to be
followed and preside over the merrymaking. The gifts exchanged were
usually gag gifts or small figurines made of wax or pottery known as sigillaria.
The poet Catullus called it "the best of days".[2]
Saturnalia was the Roman equivalent to the earlier Greek holiday of Kronia,
which was celebrated during the Attic month of Hekatombaion in late
midsummer. It held theological importance for some Romans, who saw it as a
restoration of the ancient Golden Age, when the world was ruled by Saturn.
The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry interpreted the freedom associated
with Saturnalia as symbolizing the "freeing of souls into immortality".
Saturnalia may have influenced some of the customs associated with later
celebrations in western Europe occurring in midwinter, particularly traditions
associated with Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and Epiphany. In
particular, the historical western European Christmas custom of electing a
"Lord of Misrule" may have its roots in Saturnalia celebrations. Dice have
been used since before recorded history, and it is uncertain where they
originated. It is theorized that dice developed from the practice of fortune-
telling with the talus of hoofed animals, colloquially known as knucklebones.[2]
The Egyptian game of senet was played with flat two-sided throwsticks which
indicated the number of squares a player could move, and thus functioned as
a form of dice. Senet was played before 3000 BC and up to the 2nd century
AD.[3] Perhaps the oldest known dice were excavated as part of a
backgammon-like game set at the Burnt City, an archeological site in south-
eastern Iran, estimated to be from between 2800 and 2500 BC.[4] Bone dice
from Skara Brae have been dated to 3100–2400 BC.[5] Excavations from
graves at Mohenjo-daro, an Indus Valley civilization settlement, unearthed
terracotta dice dating to 2500–1900 BC.[6]
Games involving dice are mentioned in the ancient Indian Rigveda,
Atharvaveda, Mahabharata and Buddhist games list.[7] There are several
biblical references to "casting lots" (Hebrew: ‫ יפילו גורל‬yappîlū ḡōrāl), as in
Psalm 22, indicating that dicing (or a related activity) was commonplace when
the psalm was composed. Knucklebones was a game of skill played in
ancient Greece; a derivative form had the four sides of bones receive
different values like modern dice.[8]
 Twenty-sided serpentinite die from Ptolemaic Egypt[9]
Although gambling was illegal, many Romans were passionate gamblers who
enjoyed dicing, which was known as aleam ludere ("to play at dice"). There
were two sizes of Roman dice. Tali were large dice inscribed with one, three,
four, and six on four sides. Tesserae were smaller dice with sides numbered
from one to six.[10] Twenty-sided dice date back to the 2nd century AD[11] and
from Ptolemaic Egypt as early as the 2nd century BC.