In our language X can stand for many things, including a kiss or something unknown. But Xmas doesn't mean that no one knows when Jesus was born. Xmas is simply shorter way to say "Christmas." The X stands for the first letter in the Greek name for Jesus, or Christ, and mas is a shortened form of the word "mass." But Xmas is also more than an abbreviation; it is an example of the way the first Christians tried to convey a great deal of meaning with very few letters.
The use of the letter X to stand for Christ goes back to ancient Greek tradition. X is actually the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of Christos, the Greek word for Christ. Using our alphabet, the Greek word would look like XPICTOC; in Greek the R was written like our P and the S was often written like our C. Thus, in early Christian writting and art, the letter X or the combination of XP, the first two letters of the word Christos, were used as an abbreviation to refer to Christ. Sometimes, the letters were combined into a monogram that looks like a single design.
The word Christmas can be traced to the 11th century; the shorter Xmas came into use about 300 years later and has been popular ever since.
Did you know? The X-shape is also symbolic of the cross, an early sign used by Christians. |
