Re: Roger's Rabbits and the early Romans. Your article on page 2 printed Friday, December 30, 2016, is correct when it says that Jesus was born around September, not December. However, you did the Romans of that period a disservice by implying that they just arbitrarily moved the celebration of the birth to December around 300AD. Prior to the birth of Christianity (Jesus), Paganism and other ‘belief systems' were observed around the world, from time immemorial. What we now call ‘Christmas' was in fact their ‘Winter Solstice'; a Pagan holy day celebrating the change in seasons, and the beginning of longer sunshine; i.e. the new sun. To this day, modern Pagans, Witches and Wiccans continue with that. Around 300AD, the early Christian Church decided to adopt the same time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The motive was to attract Pagans and others (such as those mentioned above) towards Christianity, and so the two ‘celebrations' were merged.

G Allan, Tauranga.