Re: Merry Christmas

R L Measures <r@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]
** Years before His birth c.4BC, Dec. 25 was celebrated in Rome as
Mithra's birthday.
[snip]

The Internet is awash in assertions of this sort. Can you point me to
the *original* sources for this supposed fact?

The Emperor Aurelian may have celebrated December 25 as the birthday of
the unconquered sun (dies natalis Solis Invicti) in A.D. 274. The first
reference to this is from A.D. 354, according to Wikipedia anyway ("Sol
Invictus").

But what evidence is there that anyone in Rome celebrated this feast
before this? Or that Mithra was identified with Sol Invictus by Romans?

Plutarch (c. 46- 127) mentions Mithra in his *Life of Pompey*: *in 67
B.C. a large band of pirates based in Cilicia were practicing "secret
rites" of Mithras.*. But then Cilicia isn't Rome. In any case, the
archaeological evidence for Mithraism in Rome dates from the second half
of the First Century A.D. Where did you get your information from?

Maybe the whole thing is academic anyway: There's no copyright on
celebrations on December 25. If we Christians want to *replace* Mithra,
Sol Invictus or whatever with a remembrance of the birth of the
Christ-child, what's the harm? Would some other date be more acceptable
to you? Why should Christians alter their ancient celebrations to
accomodate you (or Mithra or Sol Invictus or whomever)?

--
Dennis dag2ster@xxxxxxxxx
Thinking with the Church requires thinking. R. Nuehaus
.