I am not particularly fond of the modern version of Christmas. Once a holiday of deep religious significance, it has become overly commercialized and lost its original meaning in the process.

I guess people could say that I am a little old-fashioned in this sense, a fundamentalist of sorts. In that respect I would have to agree, as I would like to see us put Paganism back in the Dec. 25 holiday.

Most Christians ignorantly state that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” without the slightest clue about the origins of the holiday or the pagan rituals they inadvertently participate in during the “Christian” Christmas celebration. From the Christmas tree to the mistletoe, everything about Christmas has significance when viewed from the pagan perspective, including Jesus himself.

The origins of the modern Christmas traditions lie in Roman paganism and the celebration of Saturnalia, which occurred a little after mid-December. During Saturnalia, Romans were given over to wild merry-making, gift giving, etc., in what would today be likened to Mardi Gras. This was the state of affairs regarding Christmas for centuries, in spite of the theocratic Middle Ages, until the modern Christmas was synthesized from various Euro-pagan traditions in the Victorian era into what we know it as today.

Most influential to the Christmas holiday was not Jesus, but the celebration of the birth of the Persian sun god, Mithra. Hundreds of years before the supposed birth of Jesus, the worship of Mithra was brought to the Mediterranean following Alexander’s conquests.

Christians might find it interesting that Mithra was considered the Son of God and born of a virgin. Mithra 12 disciples (one for each of the signs of the zodiac), had a last supper with them, and died to redeem humankind. Mithraists were Trinitarians, believed Mithra was co-equal with God, kept Sunday as their day of worship (what other day would they worship a SUN god on?), and believed that Mithra would come at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.

Having read that I will give you one guess as to what day Mithra’s birth was celebrated on. Dec. 25. “Why Dec. 25?” you might ask. Roman pagans noted that the sunlight began to increase after Dec. 22, when they believed the sun god had died, but after three days he was believed to have risen from the dead. Does that sound familiar?

It was not a difficult switch for Roman authorities to substitute Christ for Mithra at the Council of Nicea in 325, in addition to capitalizing on anti-Jewish sentiment and changing the traditional Saturday Sabbath to Sunday.

Also, Christians carry on the pagan rituals today. The Christmas tree is such an ancient pagan custom that Jeremiah 10:3-4 mentions it saying, “… they cut a tree out of the forest. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.”

Lastly, Jesus himself might in fact be a pagan concoction. The first clue is that Mithraists were already practicing Trinitarianism before Christians. The second lies in the fact that pagan gods preferred virgins to mother their god-human offspring. Finally, Christianity is largely based on a misinterpretation of the Septuagint in that the Hebrew word for “young woman” was translated into the Greek word for “virgin,” giving those who spoke Greek — the language in which the New Testament was written — ample fuel to propagate a religion based on traditions with which the pagans were already familiar.

Please do not get me wrong — I still love Christmas — but let us be honest with ourselves. It is a pagan holiday celebrated today in much the same way our pagan ancestors celebrated it. In the spirit of pagan inclusiveness, I doubt any would object to Christians celebrating the birth of their god-man on Dec. 25, but let us keep one thing firmly in mind: Mithra is the reason for the season.