Someone shared this meme with me this morning. (The red X is my own addition.) It claims that all of these ancient pagan deities were born on December 25th:
- Horus (Egypt)
- Osiris (Egypt)
- Attis (Greece)
- Krishna (India)
- Zoroaster (Persia)
- Mithra (Persia)
- Prometheus (Greece)
- Heracles (Greece)
- Dionysius (Greece)
- Tammuz (Babylon)
- Adonis (Greece)
- Hermes (Greece)
Problem 1: Neither Egypt, Greece, India, Persia, nor Babylon had a month named "December".
December means "10th month", but the Roman calendar had been divorced from lunar cycles some 5 centuries before Christ, and then months were added in the middle to make the 10th month into the 12th month. All of these cultures used multiple calendars simultaneously. There were solar/astrological months, lunar months, seasonal divisions, etc., but none of them had a month that corresponded precisely to the Roman December.
Problem 2: It's just plain wrong.
Horus' birthday was celebrated in late summer, as was Zoroaster's. Krishna's was celebrated in early summer. There is no historical record of a birthday celebration for Mithras among the ancient Iranians. Osiris' birthday (or rebirth day) was celebrated in the spring.
Evidently, whoever made this meme just made the entire thing up. I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the images on the depicted coins have no connection at all to the names under them.
The Lesson: Stop believing everything you read or hear on the Internet no matter how true it sounds and no matter how badly you want it to be true.
Think for yourself. Do even a tiny bit of research before repeating things. Don't cause the world to blaspheme God's name by repeating lies and hysteria.
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