THE PAGAN CELEBRATION OF THE SUN

ANA MARÍA SEGHESSO

                           Emperors with the solar crown

                                         like the Unconquered Sun

Between December 22nd and 25th in the Northern Hemisphere, the hours of darkness reach their maximum relative to the hours of daylight. From the 25th onward, daylight gradually increases, following the Winter Solstice, a circumstance that the ancient Romans celebrated with the Rite of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun – Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the god of Light destined to triumph over the darkness of evil.

Several solar deities with the role of saviors of humanity, such as Mithras, Helios, and El-Gabal, represented the Sun in their respective religions.

El-Gabal, in its Latinized form Elagabal or Elagabalus, was an ancient Syrian solar deity whose cult arrived in Rome during the reign of the Roman emperor Elagabalus, at the beginning of the 3rd century AD.

Al-Gabal was originally venerated in the Syrian city of Emesa.

The birth of Christ has been placed in that period three centuries after his actual birth, although it is true that this date is not mentioned anywhere in the Gospels.

The feast of Christmas was instituted by Constantine the Great, according to a Roman historian and chronographer, Furius Dionysius Philocalus, in an almanac where the following entry appears:

“Eighth day before the Kalends of January (December 25): Christ, born in Bethlehem of Judea.”

Constantine integrated Christianity—previously persecuted—as the religion of the Roman state. After experimenting with various popular religions, he settled on the cult of the Sun, perhaps the most popular among the majority of the population. 

The emperor needed to adopt a religion that would serve the political needs of Rome, which was on the verge of disintegration due to continuous attacks both within and beyond its borders. 

Thus, he adopted a strategy to forge a new order in the Empire—a political, spiritual, military, and economic order—by merging the Church, Stoic philosophy, and the Roman State. One of the consequences of this new religious order was the different way of measuring time, inspired by religion, as the celebrations of the Empire began to be replaced by Christian celebrations. 

The basic Julian calendar—365 days and 6 hours, divided into twelve months—remained unchanged, but introduced three modifications to its organization: - Sunday as a holy day - the seven-day week - the official celebration of fixed or solar festivals, such as Christmas, and movable or lunar festivals, such as Easter.

Sunday was adopted as the first day of the week, a concept unknown to the Romans, who used a different system based on the Kalends (beginning of the month, new moon), Nones (first quarter of the moon), and Ides (full moon).

Sunday, called Sol Diem or Dies Solis (Day of the Sun), was decreed by Constantine as a day of rest on which no work was to be done. Later, the name Dies Solis was replaced in the Romance languages by Dies dominicus or Day of the Lord, as in the Italian Domenica and the French Dimanche. 

In other languages, its original meaning was retained, such as the English Sunday, the German Sonntag, and the Danish Søndag. 

The Constantinian week quickly gained popularity among the Romans, partly because the days coincided with the names of the Roman gods and their astrological and astronomical significances: five for the known planets, in addition to the Sun and the Moon. 

                          ASTROLOGICAL CHART

Christian jurists, bishops, and priests, not entirely in agreement with the pagan meaning of the Sun, tried to justify the Emperor's decision by emphasizing the concept that Christ, like the Sun, was the light of the world.

                                              RELIEF

                                          VATICAN MUSEUMS

  

- Sol Invictus ("unconquered sun") or, in its full form, 

Deus Sol Invictus (Latin, "the invincible Sun God"), 

was a religious title applied to at least three distinct 

deities during the Roman Empire: El Gabal, Mithras, 

and Sol.

- Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor, declared 

Helios the sole deity, with the other deities being 

manifestations of this god. 

During his reign, the religion of the Sun became 

the official religion of Rome.

- Chronography: The science of determining the order and dates of historical events.