There are many who fervently believe that the "X" in "Xmas" is crossing out Christ's name.
And, according to them, that makes it a really bad thing to do, much like shortening "God be with you" to "Good-bye." But what do they know?
First, understand that the
Bible was not written in English... not originally. Lot's of things weren't. English is not that old. The
origin of the English language traditionally dates back to 1066 with the Battle of Hastings, easily a thousand years after
Christ. (English Language) Even at that, what they were speaking isn't even close to what we now call English.
If you went back in time and expected people to be able to understand you, first, go somewhere they actually spoke English.
Second, don't go before, say, 1500. If you were to go back to the early days of when the New Testament was being written,
around 50 AD, (History of the Bible) they were speaking Greek. Indeed, the word "Bible" is of Greek origin.
(Language of the New Testament)
The Greek word for Christ (in Greek) is
Χριστός
If you could find an original copy of the New Testament, that's the word you're going to see. (Ambrosino)
Using "X" as an abbreviation for Christ goes back a long ways, too, all the way back to Constantine the
Great (not to be confused with his son, Constantine the OK). On October 28, 312 AD, Constantine defeated the superior
forces of his nemesis Maxentius at the battle of Milivan Bridge. (The Battle of Milvian Bridge) The night before
Constantine had a vision, and in that vision God himself told Constantine to create a war banner with the first two letters
of Christ's name, which, in Greek, are chi and rho, "chi" being an X, and "rho" being a P... like this:
If the above symbol doesn't look familiar to you, then you've probably never been in a
Christian church. By the way, Constantine won that battle, which is pretty much a forgone conclusion if
you have God on your side. (Ambrosino) Anybody who's seen the Indiana Jones movies knows that.
Another familiar symbol for many Christians is
ΙΧΘΥΣ
This is actually an acronym (in Greek), meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." Yup.
The "X" is short for "Christ." (Ambrosino)
"Christmas" is a combination of the words "Christ" and "Mass."
Christ being... well... Jesus. And Mass means... well... mass – a church service. In this case, it's a church
service for Christ. At one time, especially in the Catholic church, every saint had a day, and on that day a special
mass was said for that particular saint. (Clark) For instance, Michaelmas, honoring the Angel Michael (one of my favourites),
and all the other Angels as well (after all, there are over 10,000 saints recognized by the Catholic church), is celebrated
by those who celebrate such things on September 29. (Johnson)
The first recorded instance of "Xmas"
being used for "Christmas" is in 1021, when a thrifty scribe shortened it to "XPmas." And who can
blame him? After all, parchment paper was expensive, and not to be wasted. And he was probably copying the entire
Bible by hand. Anything that could be abbreviated was. Soon after the abbreviation was shortened even more, to
"Xmas." (Ambrosino) And, as they say, the rest is history.
So if you're tired of the way Xmas has changed over the years, of how people have taken
a once sacred holiday and made it into a farce...
if you want to get back to the real meaning of Xmas, then it's time to put the "X" back in Xmas.
