Definition: Brumalia was an ancient Greco-Roman solstice festival. During the Brumalia, the fermented grape wine was poured into jars. Although a pagan festival, which included drinking and merriment, it was popular enough to last into the Christian era in somewhat altered form. For more details, see A Revivable Brumalia Custom.
Examples:
Information about Brumalia is confusing and contradictory.
"Moreover, the Byzantine Brumalia was actually called a festival of Cronos, and December 17, the day on which it closed, was the opening day of the Saturnalia....Balzamon, Tzetzes, and Zonaras, twelfth century Byzantine writers, affirm that the Brumalia was a festival of Dionysus, inasmuch as βροῦμοςwas an epithet of that god. It is a fact that at this festival, in the eighth century, the Emperor Constantine Copronymus revered Dionysus and Broumos as creators of corn and wine.
From: De Bruma et Brumalibus Festis. By John Raymond Crawford. Harvard University Dissertation. Printed in Byzantinischer Zeitschrift 23.3-4 (pages 365-396).
