December 6, 2004
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Holiday Gift Giving Tradition
The ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia was celebrated on December 17. During the sometimes wild festivities, master and slave would, for a time, change places. To make sure they wouldn't be mistreated by their slaves, masters would often give gifts in the days preceding the celebration. But this isn't the only, nor the strongest, reason for giving gifts at this time.
The Roman army had discovered Mithras and most of the enlisted men were worshipers. Following their religion, officers would give gifts to the enlisted men on December 25. When the new Christian religion was being established as the state religion of the Roman Empire, the army threatened to revolt if they couldn't continue their worship ... and their gift day.
That is why the date of Christmas was set as December 25, to keep the gift day of the Roman army according to their beliefs in Mithras, and why gift giving is associated with Christmas.