Christmas or Xmas?
Christmas is also sometimes known as
Xmas
Some people don't think it's correct
to call Christmas 'Xmas' as that takes the 'Christ' (Jesus) out of Christmas.
(As Christmas comes from Christ-Mass, the Church service that celebrated the
birth of Jesus.).
But that is not quite right!
In the Greek language and alphabet,
the letter that looks like an X is the Greek letter chi / Χ (pronounced 'kye' -
it rhymes with 'eye') which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ,
Christos..
The early church used the first two
letters of Christos in the Greek alphabet 'chi' and 'rho' to create a monogram
(symbol) to represent the name of Jesus.
.
.
This looks like an X with a small p
on the top: ☧
The symbol of a fish is sometimes
used by Christians (you might see a fish sticker on a car or someone wearing a
little fish badge).
.
.
This comes from the time when the
first Christians had to meet in secret, as the Romans wanted to kill them
(before Emperor Constantine became a Christian).
.
.
Jesus had said that he wanted to
make his followers 'Fishers of Men', so people started to use that symbol.
.
When two Christians met, one person drew half a basic fish shape (often using their foot in the dust on the ground) and the other person drew the other half of the fish.
.
When two Christians met, one person drew half a basic fish shape (often using their foot in the dust on the ground) and the other person drew the other half of the fish.
.
The Greek word for fish is 'Ikthus'
or 'Ichthys.'
There are five Greek letters in the
word. It can also make up a sentence of Christian beliefs 'Ie-sous Christos
Theou Huios So-te-r' which in English means "Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Saviour".
The second letter of these five
letter is X or Christos!
So Xmas can also mean Christmas; but
it should also be pronounced 'Christmas' rather than 'ex-mas'!
http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/christmas_or_xmas.shtml
http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/christmas_or_xmas.shtml
RELATED POSTS:
Is 'Xmas' an
acceptable
abbreviation for 'Christmas'?
.
.
The Claus That Refreshes
What Really Happened On December 25?
p-chron p-files
No comments:
Post a Comment