Christmas: Pagan or Christian? (TRIH ep 402)
325 · Resource
On this Christmas-morning episode Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook investigate the claim that Christmas is fundamentally a pagan festival stolen from rival cults. They examine Dan Brown's fictional Lee Teabing’s assertions — that Mithras, Osiris, Adonis, Dionysus and Krishna share December 25 birthdays and Christian motifs — and find little ancient evidence for most of those parallels. The hosts distinguish Mithras from Sol Invictus, discuss the Calendar of 354 entry noting a natalis invicti...
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 325
- Council of Nicaea (325)
- Sack of Rome by Visigoths (410)
- Edict of Milan (313)
- Gupta Empire (320)
- Conversion of Constantine (312)
- Romans withdraw from Britain (410)
- Christianity becomes Roman state religion (380)
- Founding of Constantinople (330)
- Reign of Constantine the Great (306)
- Augustine of Hippo (354)