[lit-ideas] Putting X back in Xmas
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:01:30 -0600
I thought Eric might find this article from the Washington Post interesting --
and perhaps some others:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121901802.html
Back 30 years ago I was working at a TV/Radio station in Memphis. During the
afternoon radio talk show -- banter between two "talents", one started
bewailing the use of 'Xmas' instead of 'Christmas'. What could be a greater
insult to Christianity than to substitute Christ with an X. I sent him a note
while he was broadcasting informing him that it wasn't an 'x' it was the Greek
letter chi which at least since 1551 has been used to stand for Christ. It
probably dates back much, much earlier since one often sees XP (chi rho) in
Catholic iconography. The "talent" read the note and said on air, "some pedant
out there in our audience claims the X is not an X but a Greek letter. But
that doesn't make any sense -- Christ wasn't a Greek."
I gave up.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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