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Winter solstice and Christmas

In this article I present scientifically valid proof and reasoning that disproves the claim that Christmas isn't celebrated on the 25th of December because it was winter solstice, the birthday of sun gods. Some claim there is no connection with winter solstice and Christmas, so I enjoy proving them wrong. I don't usually write in english, so forgive me for any grammatical errors.. and yes, I am university educated and this is not the first scientific article I write.

Romans worshipped Mithras as a sun god

(Image: Wikimedia commons)

This relief reads "Soli Invicto Deo.." an it literally means "Unconquered sun god. Atimetus servant of the Emperor, our secretary Roman farms". The picture of a man slaying a bull is that of Mithras (britannica.com/topic/Mithraism). This white marble relief (H. and Br. about 0.75). Is currently located in Vatican Museum, walled in the Cortile del Belvedere.

A Roman calendar drawn up by a Christian in 354 A.D. (The Codex Calendar of 354) shows December 25 to be the birthday of Sol Invictus and also the birthday of Christ (P.L., XIII, 675; the whole in J. Strzygowski, Kalenderbilder des Chron. von Jahre 354, Berlin, 1888).

From these two indisputable facts we can draw the conclusion, using Occam's razor, that the Romans celebrated the birthday of the sun on 25th of December and that it was an important day of sun celebration for hundreds of years. When they changed gods they made the primary god to be the sun god, the worship of sun as god didn't change, only the names of the gods changed. One of those gods they took and made to be their sun god was Jesus Christ.

Occam's razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. It can be interpreted as: Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.

Winter solstice was on the 25th

Using a program to convert Julian calendar dates to Gregorian calendar dates (http://www.math.harvard.edu/computing/javascript/Calendar/) we can see that when the Julian calendar was created in 46 BC (Richards 2013, p. 595) the Julian date 25th of December 46 BC corresponds to the Gregorian date 23th of December 46 BC and continues to do so for about the next hundred years. The two calendars were relatively close to each other at that time, because it was only much later that Julian calendar had, by a significant amount drifted away from the seasons and changed to the Gregorian calendar.

During those hundred or so years the winter solstice almost always fell on the Julian date 25th of December, the Gregorian 23th of December. This can be verified by visiting timeanddate.com or by using Stellarium or similar astronomically accurate software (http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/seasons.html?year=1&n=215). This is of course verified by history as well, Pliny the Elder (born AD 23 death August 25, AD 79) states that winter solstice fell on the 25th of December (using Julian calendar)(Chap. 59.The Epoch Of The Seasons, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D18%3Achapter%3D59).

Conclusion

To deny that the origin of Christmas is in Roman sun god worship, in sun's birthday celebration on the 25th of December is, let me be clear, SCIENTIFICALLY INVALID. One cannot rely on some Professor or Doctor here and there to deny it, as that would be an appeal to authority, a logical fallacy.

The truth is the truth

Joel 24.12.2015