Previously, Emperor Aurelian, who ruled Rome for five years at the end of the third century CE, had been devoted to the sun god Sol. He must have felt that Sol was not getting enough credit, so he decreed that December 25 would be a holiday in Sol’s honor called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or “Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun,” which is an amazing pun about Christmas in English but, alas, not in Latin. It was a celebration of the changing of the seasons, the return of the light, the lengthening of days thinly disguised as the birthday of their sun god.
