The Christmas Post: Happy Winter Solstice

The holiday for late Roman deity Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun, was celebrated on December 25. I say late Roman deity because it was under the influence of eastern religions in the late second and third centuries CE that Sol Invictus (aka, Elah Gabal, its Syrian name) came to prominence. To be more specific, the Hellenized Persian deity Mithras was also born this day (and sometimes conflated with Sol Invictus in this later period). Along with a series of Egyptian cults, Mithras and Sol Invictus were two of the great religious competitors to Christianity as monotheistic cults also coming from the east, spreading rapidly throughout the empire. Additionally, the Italian holiday Saturnalia, a holiday of merry-making, was celebrated at this time. It is no accident that the Christmas was celebrated on this day during the Christian imperial period beginning in the fourth century.