The first paragraph of Catholic blogger Mark Shea's post.
Time was when I, like most people, took it for granted the
winter solstice and, in particular, the Roman Feast of the Birth of
the Unconquered Sun were simply pagan celebrations that hung around
into Christian times. In fact, when I set out to write this book I
still thought this. But I discovered the reality is far more
complicated and interesting. Indeed, it turns out this widely
assumed "fact" that "everybody knows" is probably another sample of
pseudo-knowledge. For according to William Tighe, a church history
specialist at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College, "the pagan
festival of the 'Birth of the Unconquered Sun' instituted by the
Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an
attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of
some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the 'pagan origins of
Christmas' is a myth without historical substance."
http://markshea.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_markshea_archive.html#116611119750997638
