Solstice
"Significant in solar rituals, particularly those marking the northern winter solstice on December 21/22, the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, after which the sun is symbolically 'reborn'. In 274 CE, the emperor Aurelian sought to unite the Roman Empire around the cult of the Sol Invictus ('Unconquered Sun', the Persian god of light, Mithras) and fixed December 25 as the sun's birthday. Sixty years later, the Christian church borrowed this date to commemorate the birth of Christ as the new prince of light." (Tresidder)
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