December 25 has always been a holiday, but it hasn’t always been Christmas. What the Romans celebrated on that day was not the birth of Christ. The pagan festival of Saturnalia took place at this time. The birth of Mithra, the god of light, was celebrated on this day. The story of the conception, birth, and death of Mithra is very similar to the story of Jesus. Mithra is even supposed to have resurrected from the grave.
