Ok, around now we read or hear this meme - on FB, here maybe or anywhere around the internet or even radio or TV:
“Jesus wasnt born on Dec 25. The ancient Christians picked that day to compete with the ancient Roman Mitraic Holiday of Saturnalia, also celebrated on Dec 25. Saturnalia was a time of great merryment, with gift giving, parties and everything we associate with Christmas. Note the Similarity with the Solstice, “the celebration the Sun reborn” vs “the celebration the Son reborn”!”
It’s all wrong and all bullshit- except maybe the part about “Jesus wasnt born on Dec 25” because honestly we have no idea.
Saturnalia wasnt about Mitra, it was about (oddly, eh) Saturn. It wasnt celebrated on Dec 25, but the 17th (however, the Roman calendar being what it was, things moved about). Yes, as Wiki puts it: “The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for both slaves and freedmen alike.[1] A common custom was the election of a “King of the Saturnalia”, who would give orders to people, which were to be followed and preside over the merrymaking. The gifts exchanged were usually gag gifts or small figurines made of wax or pottery known as sigillaria. The poet Catullus called it “the best of days”.[2]” Note the types of gifts. Saturnalia was more Mardi gras.
Then, if you were gonna compete with a Dec 17th holiday, you wouldnt pick Dec 25th. But altho the ancient Christian picked Dec 25th in the 3rd century , calling it “celebrating” would be a gross exaggeration. It was a “feast day” which all you catholic know, has nothing actually to do with feasting. The person (usually a saint) whose day it is remembered on their individual feast days with special mention, prayers, and possibly a scripture reading. Not until the time of Charlemagne , many hundreds of years later, (and after saturnalia hadnt been celebrated for over 500 years) was Christmas actually a time for merrymaking. So, the Christians didnt pick Dec 25th to "compete’ with saturnalia (which was dying out by that time anyway) as a riotous fun day of drinking, gambling and foolishness is not gonna be outdone by a day of quiet prayer and maybe lighting a candle. Easter was the big holiday, Christmas was pretty small potatoes.
As for that the celebration the Sun reborn" vs “the celebration the Son reborn”!", that pun only works in English, otherwise it’s sol and* filius.* The Roman version of the cult of Mitra came after Christianity, and it was a secret cult in any case (what we know about it for sure wouldnt fill a small pamphlet).And the Solstice is the 21st, not the 25th (to be sure, the Roman calendar was off by several days so stuff moved around).
Why did they pick the 25th? A very early Christian tradition said that the day when Mary was given the news she would bear the baby Jesus (called the Annunciation) was on March 25th - and it’s still celebrated today on same day. Nine months after the 25th March is the 25th of December. March 25th was also the day that Jesus died on when he was an adult. Numerology. It kinda makes sense. But it was backwards calculation, not “Hey, lets compete with saturnalia!”. Mind you, Dec 25th is likely wrong, but it’s as good as any other day, so why not?
So, dont believe the UL. Mind you, many Christmas traditions- holly, mistletoe, wreaths, the tree, yule logs and what not were folk (or even (shhh) pagan ) traditions we appropriated. So there is a little element of Yule in there. But no Saturnalia.
