About Xmas and Christmas

Hi all, sorry this is not a creation or eye candy, but I just had to clarify couple things. Usually I don't talk about religion or politics on my blog etc, and try to keep it just creative (btw I am a Christian)  but I felt the need to address something.

Ok, I have been "accused" for taking Christ out of Christmas by writing couple times Xmas instead of Christmas.
No one is taking Christ out of Christmas! 

Do you know the meaning of "X"? It does symbolizes the Cross.


"The "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as "Christ".
The word "Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as AD 1021. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for "Christ"), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as , is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the OED Supplement have cited usages of "X-" or "Xp-" for "Christ-" as early as 1485. The terms "Xpian" and "Xtian" have also been used for "Christian". The dictionary further cites usage of "Xtianity" for "Christianity" from 1634. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, most of the evidence for these words comes from "educated Englishmen who knew their Greek"

In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos ,as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek.

some links to check:
http://christiansymbols.net/monograms_2.php
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10488a.htm



As well there are languages where the translation for Christmas it doesn't mean Christ or anything close. But it's all in the meaning of the holiday.
Like here you say Easter, and in certain languages in Eastern Europe when we literally translate it to English it's" The Resurrection  of Christ" and both symbolize the same Holiday, the Ressurection of Jesus Christ.

Just little food for thought.

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