Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Xmas

I was taught that "Xmas" was a sign that the world was going atheist. What do you think?

Well, as an athiest/agnostic, I'm probably not the one to say.

I usually try to think twice about using Xmas, because I know it offends some people.

But quite often it slips in and I forget. It's just another piece of shorthand to me - quicker to type.

I used to solve that one by referring to the origins of the festival instead and calling it Yule or Yuletide. But half the time no one knew what I was talking about or assumed I was a Pagan. So gave that one up.

Not that I would mind being a Pagan - if I was going to follow a religion that might well be it. But it was less than factual. Besides, being a Pagan to them consisted of endlessly teasing me about dancing naked in fields, so....


LabRat

PS - Neither of the first two answers quite applied, since I don't know either way - so was forced to click on the drugs one just to see the results. Don't really think you're on them though, Mary. <G>

Okay, I was going to say "lay off the drugs" , but XMAS really does have a real meaning that is actually ritualistic -- or so I was taught in Catholic school. It isn't at all that the world is becoming Athiest.

I am not Greek, so i really have no idea if this is true or not, but I was taught than in Greek, the word for Christ is Xtos, and so X is the greek letter Chi, and it parallels the abreviation Xtian, or christian. Chi Rho is one of the oldest symbols for Christ. Therefore, Xmas is a very religious way to say "christmas" not at all for the commercial world to turn it into a completely secular holiday.

- Laura

And I thought "Xmas" was just an abbreviation because people were too lazy to write out the whole word! Thanks for the clarification, Laura!!!

I chose the 'drug' option too!

*picks LabRat some daffodils*

I too was taught in school by a nun, that XMas was disrespectful. I didn't think so at the time, but if that's the way it is viewed (as I see it still seems to be) I just spell out 'Christmas' instead.

Of course, I didn't know that Laura.
I don't think the nun knew that.

That sounds interesting, but I still probably won't use XMas since that's the way it's still usually viewed, as "not appropriate", bla bla bla.

So for the sake of my communicating, I simply just use Christmas.

I always thought Xmas was an abbreviation, also. The reasoning in my head was the X was a cross, and Christ died on a cross... so it was the lazy way of typing it out.

I'm in the camp that always thought Xmas was just an abbreviation. But my interpretation was:

X = Criss cross
Xmas = Crissmas (bad spelling of Christmas)

And, too, I was always taught that it was disrespectful to use it as it even further removed the holiday from the true religious origins toward the secular, commercial broohaha it is today. I don't have a problem with it myself, but I don't write it on something anyone else would see as I don't wish to offend.

Lynn

I'm with Laura here. I don't know a lot of Greek, but I was taught that Xmas originated from the Greek word for Christ which is Xristos, or Kristos, or haowever you want to spell it out. I *think* the 15-16th century Europeans starting using Xmas as an abbreviation. So yeah, poeple got lazy , but they still had good intentions in the religious sense, I guess.

Ciao,
JD

How fascinating! I didn't have that much curiosity about its origins, I'll confess. But when I did think about it I always just made the same assumption as Karen - that the X stood for the cross.

You learn something new....

LabRat

Jen, you are totally right, but it isn't even lazy. It really does stem back to the Roman empire. The first two letters in the word Christ in Greek are Chi (X) Rho (p) and when the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity, he told his soldiers to paid XP on their shield to signify that they were a Christian army. And the XP along with the fish symbol has been found in the catacombs as among the earlist symbols the Christians used to identify themselves.

So xmas is not rude or lazy, nor is it bad to use. It stems back to ancient times. It really shouldn't be taken as offensive because the X is one of the earliest symbols of Christianity.

- Laura (whose father is a scholar of the history of Christianity, so she knows way more than she should )

I voted for "No, it isn't". It's just another abbreviated word. And, I hadn't previously thought of it that way, but, as a Greek , I confirm what Laura already explained very accurately

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

I always read Xmas as 'exx-mass', but I've never considered it particularily secular.

Xmas....now I know what it is....i didn´t know the real meaning.
Thanks

Karla