Sopor Aeternus, "Do You Know About the Water of Life" I listen to a lot of disturbing music, but man Sopor Aeternus is something else. They're the kind of act that would make Edward Ka-Spel want to tone it down some. It's goth music for people who want to make other goths feel the way normal people feel around us.

In "Do You Know About the Water of Life," Anna-Varney Cantodea sings the line, "Like Cronos I rigidly serve an illusion.. I attempted to unman Uranus last night/ Swallowing handfuls of my prophetic children, in terror I'm fearing the passing of time." Uranus was Cronos' father and grandfather, and Cronos castrated him for imprisoning him and his siblings in Tartarus. This stuff happens a lot in Roman mythology.

My Little Pony Cast, "Topsy Turvy" Let's lighten the mood a bit. One of the more amusing traditions of Saturnalia was the crowning of the King of Saturnalia. The King was supposed to issue ridiculous decrees such as dance naked that had to be obeyed. It's likely that this was a mockery of autocratic rule after Rome went Republic, and you can see similar practices in things like the Feast of Fools in the medieval period. The celebration was also featured in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I thought having the cast of My Little Pony sing "Topsy Turvy" instead would help clear the air after all the darkness.

NuBeat Children's Choir, "Christmas Candle" I know I may have angered some Christians in this article, but if you've read to the end, here let me say something conciliatory.

One of the things that Saturnalia, Christmas, and a host of other winter celebrations around the world have in common is the idea of lighting the world (figuratively and literally) as it darkens into winter. That's the idea. It's one big laugh in the face of increasingly long and dangerous nights. That's why the Romans lit their candles, why the secularists hang lights, why the Germanic peoples burned a yule log, and so on and so on.

What does Christmas mean? It means light. I'm pretty sure that's what Josh from Nazareth was trying to say a lot of the time: Let a little light shine.