米俐的部落格

 Is “X-Mas” an attempt to take

“Christ” out of “Christmas?”

“Happy Holidays!” “Holiday Tree.” “Seasons Greetings.” For years our increasingly secular culture has worked hard to expunge “Christ” from “Christmas.” 

So it is understandable that serious Christians would be suspicious of using “Xmas” to refer to the feast of Christ’s birth.

But keep in mind that the X in Xmas is not an English letter X. It is the Greek letter “Chi” which in English is “CH” and as such is part of the ancient Catholic monogram for Christ, the Chi-Ro that we see often on altars, chalices, etc. It looks like a “P” with and “X” superimposed on the stem of the “P”, but it is really the equivalent in Greek of the first three letters of Christ-- CH and R.

So originally “X-mas” was not intended to knock Christ out of Christmas but is simply an abbreviation of “Christ”-mas. It derives not from some modern secular agenda, but an ancient Christian custom of representing the name of our Lord with a Greek monogram.

[1] (1) not connected with or controlled by a church or other religious authority 不與教會聯繫的﹐不受教會管轄的，eg. secular education   世俗教育、our modern secular society   我們現代的世俗化社會 (2) a secular priest lives among ordinary people, rather than with other priests in a MONASTERY 〔教士〕住在俗人之中的﹐不住在修道院內的

[2] formal -【正式】(1) to remove a name from a list, piece of information, or book 刪去﹐勾銷(2) to make someone forget something unpleasant 使淡忘﹐抹掉(3)  I tried to expunge the whole episode from my memory .   我努力想把整件事從記憶中抹掉。

[3] two or more letters, usually the first letters of someone's names, that are put together to form a design 交織字母﹐花押字〔兩個或兩個以上字母﹐通常是姓和名的首字母﹐放在一起構成的圖案〕

[4] a gold or silver decorated cup used for example to hold wine in Christian religious services 〔用金或銀裝飾的〕酒杯〔尤指基督教的聖餐杯〕