For His Glory

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Truth about Christmas

Below is the short history and explanation of Christmas and of the use of the word X-mas. I just thought it was very interesting. The more I study about Christmas, the more I see things wrong with it.


Christmas
The word Christmas comes the Old English word 'Cristes Mæsse' ~ meaning the 'mass of Christ'. Christmas is orginally a Catholic holiday. It is believed that Christ was born on the 25th, although the exact month is unknown. December was likely chosen so the Catholic Church could compete with rival pagan rituals held at that time of year and because of its closeness with the winter soltice in the Northern hemisphere, a traditonal time of celebration among many ancient cultures.



Xmas

This abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin.
It is derived from the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, transliterated as Christos, which is Greek for Christ . Originally, in "Xmas", X represented the Greek letter χ. It was pronounced with an aspirated [kh], which is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek. An upper-case χ has the same shape as a Latin alphabet letter X, hence the abbreviation "Xmas".

As origins of the word go largely unnoticed by the larger public, many people believe that the term is often used as a tool by some to "take Christ out of Christmas" as a means of secularization
or a vehicle for pushing political correctness . This notion is greatly disputed.

Source: Wikipedia

1 Comments:

  • many people believe that the term is often used as a tool by some to "take Christ out of Christmas" as a means of secularization or a vehicle for pushing political correctness

    I too have heard this before. However I've also heard that the X is supposed to represent the Cross. I don't know which it really is, and I suppose that it could be both - and would really depends on the motives of the writer.

    I just play it safe, and avoid writing xmas for Christmas.

    By Blogger Jay Harrison, at 12/23/2005 5:47 PM  

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