The meaning of X in Xmas
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Christmas is commonly abbreviated as X-mas, X being a symbol of Christ. This X actually comes from the Greek letter chi , the first letter of Χριστός — Christós or “Christ”. This abbreviation makes a lot of sense. Nowadays, however, I have a growing feeling that for many people, this representation has been somewhat lost. The symbol X now means "to cross out" or "leave out" or, in recent jargon, "to cancel". Amidst the whirlwind of Christmas activities there is a tendency to leave out Christ in Christmas . Crazy as it may sound, it is even crazier that some people do not even know that it is actually happening. We concern ourselves so much with Christmas preparations — decorations, reunions, gifts, and the noche buena — that we forget about the real reasons why we are doing them. Obviously, the solution is not to do away w...