THANKS are due to Matthew Mason (EA, April 25) for putting the record straight regarding the true meaning of Easter.

Following that vein of thought, before the festivities get well and truly underway, perhaps it is timely to put the record straight regarding the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas in fact, like Easter has no real religious significance. The word, not unlike the Roman Catholic Church who first coined the term, is a mixture. It's a mixture of Paganism and Christianity and as most Protestant Churches are very much a mixture of Secularism and Christianity it is most unlikely that religious matters will be corrected by Reverend gentlemen cast in a worldly mould.

Christmas Day, the day designated as the day of Christ's birth on our calendars on December 25, began to be observed as the birth of Christ by the Roman Catholic Church during the fourth century. This day, was the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, one of the names given the sun god. It was a day fostered by a large pagan religious cult named Mithraism as a holiday of sun worship, and was called the Nativity of the Sun.

The Roman Church seeing the advantage of continuing this winter festival christianised it by mixing it with their mass.

The Nativity of the Sun became the birth of Christ and by mixing it with the Mass the mixture Christmas was born.

The word Christmas, nor the day of Christ's birth is to be found in the Bible.

What is found is the command of Christ to celebrate his death and this is done when Christians break bread.

A J DAVIES

Swindon