I wonder if I might comment. All of this stuff is very misleading, but I confine myself to stuff I know personally in rather great detail.
Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. Even as late as the 4th century AD, the sol invictus, associated with Mithras, was the last great pagan cult the church had to overcome.
No ancient source records any association between Mithras and 25 Dec., nor between Mithras and the spring equinox.
The state sun-god, Sol Invictus, invented in 274 AD, was not "associated with Mithras", a private, non-state cult that appears ca. 50 AD. The title "unconquered sun" is used for various deities. Neither cult was a serious rival in the 4th century AD; Mithras was pretty much dead by 300, and Sol Invictus had no existence beyond the state.
It is surely possible to Google for all this...
In an ironic twist, the Cybele cult flourished on today's Vatican Hill. Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection. There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshippers and pagans who quarrelled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation.
All this is very misleading. There was certainly a temple of Cybele on the Vatican, the Phrygianum. The site was, after all, a pagan cemetary. The insinuation that somehow this is connected to the basilica of St Peters is very odd.
The legend of Attis may be simply stated. He was a shepherd who was the boyfriend of Cybele. One day he went off and shagged a nymph. His missus found out, and in a rage, cursed him with madness. While "under the influence", he sat under a pine tree and chopped his willy off (well, who hasn't?) Then he died (as, in a pre-antibiotic era you do). Then Cybele calmed down, and went off to ask Father Zeus to bring him back. Zeus refused, not being keen on this "adultery = castration" idea. The most he would do was to freeze the body.
Does that sound like Jesus? Well, only if you went to a REALLY strange church! LOL.
Only one ancient source refers to a resurrection of Attis; one written ca. 350, by Firmicus Maternus, who says the cultists pretended Attis was really just a symbol for the corn, in order to avoid the attention of the police (as castration of free men was illegal in Rome).
All this is readily and easily available online. Hostility to the beliefs of others is often a source of credulity, but ... please ... THINK! Christianity may or may not be true, but it certainly isn't so crudely false as all this.
And ... isn't there something rather distasteful about hurling this at Christians on the eve of Easter day? We may disagree with people, but why taunt them?
All the best,
Roger Pearse
