Usage of X for 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.
[2]
Nevertheless, some believe that the term is part of an effort to "take Christ out of Christmas" or to literally "cross out Christ";
[3] it is seen as evidence of the
secularization of Christmas, as a symptom of the commercialization of the holiday (as the abbreviation has long been used by retailers). It may also be seen as a vehicle to be more inclusive. (See
political correctness.)
The
labarum, often called the Chi-Rho, is a
Christian symbol representing
Christ.
The occasionally held belief that the "X" represents the
cross on which Christ was crucified also has no basis in fact.
St Andrew's Cross is X-shaped, but Christ's cross was probably shaped like a T or a †. Indeed, X-as-chi was associated with Christ long before X-as-cross could be, since the cross as a Christian symbol developed later. (The Greek letter Chi Χ stood for "Christ" in the ancient Greek acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣ
ichthys.) While some see the spelling of Christmas as Xmas a threat, others see it as a way to honor the martyrs. The use of
X as an abbreviation for "cross" in modern abbreviated writing (e.g. "
King's X" for "
King's Cross") may have reinforced this assumption.
In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name.
[4] 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. The
Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, 50 years before the first English colonists arrived in
North America and 60 years before the
King James Version of the
Bible was completed. At the same time,
Xian and
Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas". The proper names containing the name "Christ" other than aforementioned are rarely abbreviated in this way (e.g.
Hayden Xensen for the actor name "
Hayden Christensen"). This apparent usage of "X" to spell the syllable "kris" (rather than the sounds "ks") has extended to "xtal" for "
crystal", and on
florists' signs "xant" for "
chrysanthemum"
[5] (though these words are not etymologically related to "Christ": "crystal" comes from a Greek word meaning "ice", and "chrysanthemum" comes from Greek words meaning "golden flower", while "Christ" comes from a Greek word meaning "anointed").
In the 17th and 18th Centuries, "Xene" and "Exene" were common spellings of the given name Christene.
Source - Wikipedia
So "X" *is* keeping Christ in Christmas.....
On topic: Glad to hear something nice worked out for you, himain.
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