The second letter of these five letter is X or Christos! So Xmas can also mean Christmas; but it should also be pronounced 'Christmas' rather than 'ex-mas'! Christmas or Xmas? Does the 24th letter of the alphabet exhilarate you? Find out what else hides behind the X , here. Feedback We've Added New Words! Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings.
Where did Xmas come from? These shorthands happen in seminaries all the time. Santa v. Baby Jesus. Good question. The answer may have something to do with the culture wars, the historical tension between the left and the Christian right. Think about Franklin Graham's quote above. For him, and to many who share his particular religious leanings, Xmas is symbolic of a bigger problem with our culture: not only are we crossing out Christ in the word, they say, but we're tossing him out of the public square.
Therefore, Xmas, as Graham said, "is a war against the name of Jesus Christ. Graham and those who think similarly like actor Kirk Cameron and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin believe the secularization of American culture is so all pervasive that even if they're aware of the religious roots of Xmas, they still believe it is symbolic of a larger trend.
Thus, it has to go. Certainly, Christians have a right to feel however they wish, and if they think that Christianity is being driven from the public square, there's really no arguing they're wrong. In fact, polls show that organized religion in America has been declining. Writing at First Things , Matthew Schmitz, who is well aware of the historical roots of Xmas, discusses another reason some Christians might be wary of the shorthand:.
The cultural, religious, communal traditions we see as especially embodied by Christmas have been undermined by the rise of commerce and cult of efficiency. The desire to get from point A to B by the shortest possible route, irrespective of the charms of traditional byways, fuels our mania for abbreviation. The hatred for Xmas, then, may stem in part from an innate suspicion of the attempt to render all things ancient and beautiful modern, cheap, and sleek.
Here's a Christmas song from Christina Aguilera, who sometimes calls herself Xtina. Appropriately enough, it's called Xtina's Xmas. First, the US remains divided over several traditional culture war issues, most prominently abortion. The battle over Xmas, though it might seem trivial, only reinforces the "secular vs. Christian America" narrative that fuels those arguments. By: Sam Abramson.
Every holiday season, newspapers , malls and television commercials urge you to take advantage of "Xmas sales and specials. But some Christians take offense to the word "Xmas" and have called for the abolishment of this truncated version of the word "Christmas. For some, Xmas is a dreaded four-letter word that reemerges every holiday season. The phrase is literally and symbolically distasteful, according to its critics.
Not only does it "X" out Christ, the religious figure at the heart of the holiday, it also represents a secularization of Christmas, what some see as focusing more on the presents under the Christmas tree and less on religious observance and the birth of baby Jesus. Other Christians, who feel that Xmas takes the "Christ" out of "Christmas," believe that the letter X is used because of its resemblance to a cross, or to avoid the proclamation of Jesus' name.
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