Special Guest Blogger: Mithras

The mince pies are out and there is the smell of Christmas in the air. It's that time of the year when we sing carols and give and receive presents in memory of the small child born on the 25th December to a virgin and wrapped in cloth and placed in a manger with only shepherds in attendance.
The young baby who grew up to perform awesome miracles and lead his 12 disciples before sacrificing his life for the benefit of mankind with Sunday being his sacred day.
The young baby who grew up to perform miracles, and was crucified and resurrected yes, that would be me, good old Mithras who was one of the religious deities of the Roman Empire, you thought i was talking about who? Oh, the virgin, manger, shepherds, 12 disciples and dying for the peace of mankind bit. I understand now.
No silly, i pre-dated Jesus by centuries but admittedly all the similarities are a remarkable coincidence i suppose but Mithrasism was around a long time before Christianity so that makes it all the more remarkable that both our two stories are almost identical.
I had a feast day towards the end of December, part of Saturnalia, where we showed exactly how much humans kick ass. Every year, you see, winter arrived with the shortest day followed by the longest night of the year (aka the winter solstice), and us Romans celebrated that day with a feast, debauchery and a festival, although it was mostly the debauchery to be honest.
Christmas then started out as a celebration for us Romans and our array of Gods and if that bothers you, sod off back to your church and buy your own god a golden calf or something but i'm sure the early Christians never just took my story and embellished it by pasting their own guy into my story but anyway, just enjoy your mince pie and mulled wine and don't think too hard about it.