Grab a cup of cocoa (or something stronger) and join Anna and Amber as they don their coziest jammies and tell the story of Mithras, the lesser-known Reason For The Season from the ancient world. Learn how religions shift through time and place, and why you might want to feast on bull meat in a cave with some Romans this holiday season.

To learn more, check out:

The Roman Cult of Mithras (The Tertullian Project)

Is Jesus Simply a Retelling of the Mithras Mythology? (Cold Case Christianity)

Jerome: The Principal Works of St. Jerome (PDF)

Clauss, Manfred (2001) The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and his Mysteries

Were Pagan Temples All Smashed Or Just Converted Into Christian Ones? (Forbes)

Mithraism (Encyclopedia Iranica)

On Mithra's Part in Zoroastrianism (Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)

Mithra iii. In Manicheism (Encyclopedia Iranica)

Religious syncretism (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Foltz, Richard (2010) Religions of the Silk Road: Premodern Patterns of Globalization