Every year on December 25th most people, whether religious or not, stop for one day and celebrate the holiday of Christmas. Although Christians who give and receive gifts in remembrance of Jesus Christ being born, His true birth date is actually somewhat of a mystery.

The precise day of Jesus’ birth date, which historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. Later in fourth century, a Western Catholic Church placed the day Christ was born on December 25th. The primary reason behind the church picking such a date was that it either fell exactly nine months after the original conception of Jesus Christ, or that it coincided with the Roman winter solstice.

However, the Eastern Christian Church celebrates the day of Christ’s birth on the Day of Epiphany being January 6th. Hence, there is exactly thirteen days between the two dates for when Christmas is officially celebrated in the Julian calendar and the more traditionally used Gregorian calendar.

“After Christmas day, we keep all the offerings and decorations up until later in January when the Day of the Three Kings ends,” says former Fresno State student Hector Cerda.

Most western civilizations use the Julian calendar as it comes from the Western Roman Catholic church that elected to adopt this system to fit in with the date of the Roman winter solstice. The fact that the date of December 25th falls exactly nine months after the prediction of Christ’s conception within the Virgin Mary is somewhat of a coincidence.

December 25th has been thought of as the official day that Christ was born by Christian writers for many centuries. By the eighteenth century, scholars such as Isaac Newton proposed that the date of Christmas was chosen to correspond with the Roman winter solstice thus making it a pagan holiday.

In 1743, German Protestant Paul Ernst Jablonski argued that Christmas was placed on December 25th to coincide with the solar holiday that worshipped the Roman sun god. Thus, cosmic symbolism was announced by scholars as being heavily associated with the date of Christ being born and this was seen as an abomination of the Holy Roman Church (http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees).

The holiday of Christmas has evolved over the centuries and in today’s society has become more of a money-making opportunity for corporations. The various holiday customs like Santa Claus and his elves and the North Pole along with such icons as a Christmas tree, lights, garlands, and mistletoe, are all but folklore tradition.

The mass amount of traditional Christmas decorations are little more than a ploy to get people to buy gifts and other accessories to become more in touch with the “spirit” of the holidays.

“I think it’s bad that if has changed so much over the years,” says Fresno State student Maria Samora. “But since not everyone is religious, Christmas is nice because it allows for everyone to celebrate it no matter what you believe,” Samora adds.

My opinion on Christmas and it’s evolution of starting out as a Christian celebration that hails the birth of Christ to where it has come to today is two fold. First, being religious in background, I’m really glad we celebrate this special day that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Without him being born and dying on the cross for everyone’s sins, we would not celebrate the special holidays of Christmas and Easter.

However, I am very disappointed in the direction Christmas has gone as big corporations have taken this holiday and used it for personal gain. They see this holiday as a time of the year to make extra revenue and boost sales to further generate profit for their company and this is very intolerable. Hence, I move to protest and have corporations be able to only start advertising for Christmas starting at a certain date that sits at the beginning of December. This way people can get away from all the holiday shopping and madness and further focus on the true meaning of Christmas, which is Christ’s birth and the privilege of spending time with friends and family.