Christmas or Xmas?
aalmeidah
I had assumed that the term Xmas was a vaguely non-Christian term for the big winter celebration but I have just discovered I have been wrong.
Apparently, in the Greek alphabet X is the letter “chi” (sounds like “key”), the first letter in Greek for Christ or Christos, “the chosen one”.
Early Christians used “chi” and “rho” (P), to create a symbol to represent the name of Jesus. You might have seen this as an X with a P on top in religious paintings.
X also comes from the symbol of a fish, which is another sign used by Christians. This dates back to the early Christians when they were persecuted by the Romans and needed a secret sign. It comes from the notion of Christ as the “Fisher of Men”.
Early writers often used X as a kind of shorthand and though some religious people prefer the longer, Christmas, Xmas (still pronounced Christmas) is in no way sacrilegious.
