Christmas Day. What are we to make of this festivity? The churches exhort us to consider the “real meaning of Christmas”, the “reason for the season” etc. But Western society left the nativity behind many years ago. We know that the celebration of Christ’s birth wasn’t invented until 336AD, and that the day itself was in fact a pagan feast for hundreds of years prior to that (natalis solis invicti - the Roman “birth of the unconquered sun”). Most of the symbols of Christmas (gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; Yule logs and various foods from Teutonic feasts) have their origins in pagan traditions. So let us ignore the ponderous exhortations from pulpits: let those who wish to celebrate the birth of a god-child do so, and let others show goodwill towards all men in their own way.

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