One night per year, the government sanctions a 12-hour period in which citizens can commit any crime they wish — including murder — without fear of punishment or imprisonment.

The above is a brief description of the recently opened movie called The Purge: Anarchy (a sequel). I further learned that the movie’s Purge night is an acknowledgement of humanity’s natural proclivity for violence. Purging allows for the legal release of human hostility and aggression. In doing so, America enjoys a drastic decline in violent crime during the rest of the year.

I haven’t seen the movie and don’t intend to, what with its glorification of violence and bloodshed. But, you know what? I feel like I have seen it. The concept is certainly familiar to me. That’s because, as strange and fictional as the movie’s premise seems to be, it is actually art imitating life.

The legalization of crime of any stripe for a set period of time, including murder, has actually happened. I wonder if the creators of this movie knew about that and if that’s where they got the idea for the movie. If so, they would have borrowed the concept from an ancient Roman pagan festival.

The festival was called Saturnalia. The following excerpt is from an article that I wrote about the festival. It shows the similarity between the festival and the movie’s theme.

The festival would begin by each Roman community choosing a citizen to be an enemy of the state. The citizen would be labeled the “Lord of Misrule.” Each citizen victim would be forced to indulge their appetites in food and sexual activities throughout the week. At the end of the festival, the victim would be killed under the belief that the forces of darkness were being destroyed.

 

During the week, all other festival participants were free to celebrate by rioting at will. Property could be damaged; injury could be inflicted upon others – even to the point of committing rape – and no one could be punished. The courts, along with all other businesses, were closed.

Saturnalia is one of the seeds that gave bloom to and influenced modern-day Christmas. You can read more about it in my article called The Christmas Connection.  Click here to read it.