use of the term x-mas

[Beer Snob-50]

this past weekend my boy scout troop was having its annual christmas wreath sale for delivery befoer thanksgiving. the boys spent the weekend before making posters for the event. one of them used the term "x-mas". a parishoner chastized me for this claiming i was taking christ out of christmas. my feeling is that the early christians used the designation "x" to signify christ. any thoughts.

[Book Lover]

1. It's not a Roman letter "X"; it's the Greek letter "chi"

And is the first letter in the Greek spelling of "Christos."

[Beer Snob-50]

4. thanks for the info nt

[tjwmason]

5. Exactly

One might question the mixture of Greek prefix and Latin suffix...but if that's the biggest objection to the term then it's hardly a biggy.

When I was at university I was friends with several Divinity students, when taking their lecture notes several would write a chi in place of writing Christ.

Also one of the most ancient symbols of Christianity is the chi-rho, the monogram made from the first two letters of Christ in Greek (that's the one that looks an x superimposed on a p).

[hedgehog]

2. I have no answer for this, I really don't.

With everything else going on the world, it seems like a silly thing to get upset about. I'd be more concerned about the way Christmas has been turned into a festival of consumption than about what anyone calls it.

[Beer Snob-50]

3. sometimes when one listens to rw talk radio

this becomes a very big deal!

[DemBones DemBones]

6. I'll bet every one of the complainers knows what

the fish symbol means but not what the chi ro is. Very sad. Younger Catholics usually aren't very well catechized unless they've studied on their own.