Christmas needs a purpose, a reason for being, a point, and for the great majority of Australians it has none. Other than wasting money, drinking too much, eating too much, which we do on many other days of the year. In my column in The Herald today I propose that we resurrect (ahem) the original reason for the celebration of December 25. That was, in the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the turning of the seasons to sun and growth and plenty. Later this date was decreed by the Romans to be the birth date of their sun god, Mithras, and that was neatly appropriate because he delivered more sun from that date. He also offered the bonus of eternal life to his devotees. Many centuries later a pope gatecrashed the party by declaring December 25 as the birth date of someone else who offered the bonus of eternal life, and these days Christians whinge about us taking over their festival!
Well, I propose that Christians take their Christmas back to the real birth date of the baby they call Jesus Christ, some time in September, and we'll reclaim Mithras as a festival of the sun. In our hemisphere Mithras will celebrate the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the midpoint in our most bountiful growing season, a time of plenty. Christians will be free to join us in worshipping the sun god so long as there's no piety or tsk tsk tsking. Won't there be more point to that than what they and we do now?
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