Christmas Post Script...

Oh hey, I almost forgot: You know how a lot of people use the term "X-mas," and then claim that they are using it to save space? Seems like a logical argument, right? I mean, "Christmas" is a big word. And in today's fast-paced world of advertising, you pay for every letter. But then you start to realize that what they are really doing is "x-ing" out the "Christ" in Christmas. Disgusting, isn't it? How can you even concieve taking the meaning out of the season? But that's the commercialized and de-religion-ized world we live in.

Well I for one have always been infuriated by this trend in marketing, and I have always gone out of my way to see to it that I always spell out Christmas. I admit, sometimes you really have to write small in order to make it all fit, and sometimes you're in a hurry, and it takes a few extra seconds to write it all out, but I always thought it was worth it.

Well not any more!

Yes folks, I have some exciting news for you. (At least I find it exciting; but then again, I am a huge English nerd.) I was reading a friend's blog, and he was talking about this website he found which talked about the history of a lot of words in the English language. It sounded like a really cool website. Unfortunately I cannot remember what the site was. If I find out, I'll let you know. But anyways, he gave a couple examples of misconceptions about common English words.

And one of the examples he gave was the word Christmas, or "X-mas."

According to this website, the reason people started using "X-mas," aside from trying to save space and time, had nothing to do with "x-ing out" Christ at all. In fact, they kept the Christ in there. See, the originators of "X-mas" knew that the greek symbol for the first letters of Christ's name was the letter "X" (See IXOYE). So not only did they find a way to significantly shorten this long and often used word, but they were able to do it while still maintaining the cultural and spiritual signifigance of the word. Take that, heathens! HA!

So, now that we have that all cleared up, I just want to take a moment and wish everyone everywhere a very Merry X-Mas!