Editing Solar deity (section)

==== Christianization of ''Natalis Invicti'' ====
{{main|Christmas#History of religions hypothesis}}
[[File:ChristAsSol.jpg|thumb|Mosaic of Christ as [[Sun|Sol]] or [[Helios|Apollo-Helios]] in Mausoleum M in the [[Vatican Necropolis|pre-4th-century necropolis]] beneath<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/Scavi.htm|title=The Vatican Necropolis - Scavi Tomb of St Peter|website=www.saintpetersbasilica.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109120942/http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/Scavi.htm |archive-date=9 November 2007 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> [[St Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's in the Vatican]], which some interpret as representing Christ.]]
According to one hypothesis about Christmas, the date was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of [[Sol Invictus]]. The idea became popular especially in the 18th<ref>Sir [[Edward Burnett Tylor]], ''Researches Into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom, Volume 2'', p. 270; John Murray, London, 1871; revised edition 1889.</ref><ref>Philip Schaff, ''History of the Christian Church, Volume 3,'' 1885, T and T Clark, Edinburgh, page 396; see also Volume 4 in the 3rd edition, 1910 (Charles Scribner's Sons, NY).</ref> and 19th centuries.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://melkite.org/tag/feast-of-the-annunciation |title=The Day God Took Flesh |date=25 March 2012 |website=Melkite Eparchy of Newton of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church}}</ref><ref>{{cite Catholic Encyclopedia|last=Martindale |first=Cyril |wstitle=Christmas }}</ref>

The [[Chronography of 354|Philocalian calendar]] of AD 354 marks a festival of ''[[Sol Invictus#Festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti|Natalis Invicti]]'' on 25 December. There is limited evidence that the festival was celebrated at around the time before the mid-4th century.<ref>Wallraff 2001: 174–177. Hoey (1939: 480) writes: "An inscription of unique interest from the reign of Licinius embodies the official prescription for the annual celebration by his army of a festival of Sol Invictus on December 19". The inscription (Dessau, ''[[Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae]]'' 8940) actually prescribes an annual offering to Sol on ''November'' 18 (die XIV Kal(endis) Decemb(ribus), i.e. on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of December).</ref><ref>Text at [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Chronography_of_354] Parts 6 and 12 respectively.</ref>

The earliest-known example of the idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of [[Jesus]] on 25 December because it was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop [[Jacob Bar-Salibi]]. The scribe who added it wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day."<ref>(cited in ''Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries'', [[Ramsay MacMullen]]. Yale:1997, p. 155)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://melkite.org/tag/feast-of-the-annunciation|title=» Feast of the Annunciation|website=melkite.org}}</ref><ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia: Christmas]: ''Natalis Invicti''</ref>