Word: saturnalian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...earliest colonial days, funerals were a Saturnalian safety valve. "They were the only class of scenes," wrote Hawthorne, "in which our ancestors were wont to steep their tough old hearts in wine and strong drink and indulge in an outbreak of grisly jollity." When a man died, in-laws and out, friends, neighbors and creditors descended on the sobbing widow, who was expected to welcome them with all kinds of vittles-beef, ham, turkeys, oysters, fruit, cheese and sweets-as well as gallons of the local mulekick. After the corpse had been volleyed to Kingdom Come by the customary funeral...