I was accused of being lazy when I used
Xmas for Christmas. Patrick Marshall, our Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Wahoo, NE, wrote about its history in the December newsletter.
"Centuries ago, when Christianity first started taking root and growing, the dominant language of our faith was Greek (the whole New Testament was written in Greek). In Greek, the word for Christ
is
Christo. The Greek alphabet doesn't have a
C in it. So when you want to say
Christo, you had to use the Greek letter
X, which was pronounced
Chi (not
ch like
chair, but more like the
ch in how we say Christ). In Greek then, the word Christ looked like this:
Xpistou.
"When it became illegal to be a Christian and the Roman Empire started persecuting, arresting, and killing Christians, they had to be a little more discreet about the fact that they were talking about Jesus. So instead of spelling out his name, they would simply abbreviate it with
an
X, the first letter in Chirst. When the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in 313 A.D., he did so, in part, becuase he had a vision before a major battle of a shield in the sky with Greek letters
XP on it (
chi and
rho, the first two letters of Christ).
"So for over 1700 years, the letter
X has been used
by Christians as an abbreviation for
Christ. The word
Xmas, then,
is not an attempt to take Christ
out of Christmas. Christ is
right there in it. You have to
look for him.
". . . Christmas (and Christianity) isn't about finding Christ in the
obvious places. We have to
search for him in this world and in our lives. Because then and now, God always shows up where we least expect him: in a manger; a conversation with a friend, or in something as simple as a letter
. Merry Christmas."
Merry Xmas and Best Wishes for the New Year.
Grace, Peace and Plenty to you and yours now and always.
Love,
Maeann
2012 Red Convertible Travel Series
