Spreading a Little Knowledge

Today, I was perusing bloggy land, and I saw someone who has posted about her upset that people were using 'Xmas' in order to take 'Christ' out of the season.

I used to think this was true too. I remember when I was younger and saw Xmas, I didn't think much of it. I just thought it was a way to make the word short. Then when I reached my twenties, I began to feel like it was just what this blogger was saying - an attempt to take 'Christ' out of Christmas. But then I had someone who enlightened me to some history.

The use of 'X' in Xmas is not modern. The origins of the 'X' originates in the fact that the first letter in the Greek word for 'Chirst' is 'chi,' and the Greek letter 'chi' is represented by a symbol similar to the letter 'X' in the modern Roman alphabet. Hence 'Xmas' is indeed a perfectly legitimate abbreviation fo the word 'Christmas' (just as 'Xian' is aso sometimes used as an abbreviation of the word 'Christian').

Are there people who try to use Xmas to take Christ out of Christmas? Sure there are. But the neat thing is that the last laugh is on them! They aren't being as 'vicious' as they think they are. Check out the information at Wikipedia or more on the subject!