The "mas" in Christmas derives from the Ancient Egyptian "mes" which is found in the name Ramesses but which commonly rendered as Ramses. Mes means "birth" and Ramesses means "Born of Ra" the sun-god. Christmas simply means "Christ's birth." Christians tend to think of Christ as having been historical but are hard pressed to explain how his birthday occurs on the same day as earlier saviors as Zoroaster, Mithra, Krishna, Horus, Tammuz, Dumuzi, Helios and Quetzalcoatl. Moreover, this birthday has special astrological/astronomical significance. On December 22, the winter solstice occurred which was the shortest day of the year. During that time, the sun-god was considered to have died and lain in a tomb hewn in the earth since he spends most of this time below the horizon. But on the third day, the sun starts to rise and set in a more northerly direction and the days appropriately start to get longer so the sun-god was considered to have been reborn and spends more time above the horizon and so the tomb is now empty. The death of the old sun is the birth of the new or Jesus dies and is resurrected or, according to the Egyptians, the mummy wrappings of Osiris the dead god became the swaddling clothes of Horus the newborn.