We are now well into the month of December. This obviously means that there are already people going around promoting nonsense assertions that twenty-first-century Anglophone Christmas traditions are of ancient “pagan” origin. (I already wrote an article back in December 2019, in which I thoroughly refute the most common “Christmas-is-secretly-pagan” arguments and I’ve addressed some of the other arguments in various other articles.) The time of year also, however, means that there are tons of conservative Christians promoting absurd conspiracy theories that evil leftists are staging some kind of “War on Christmas.”
One aspect of this whole conspiracy theory about the supposed “War on Christmas” is the misconception that the name Xmas was invented by atheists as part of a secularist attempt to remove Christ from Christmas and turn it into a secular holiday. The assumption is that the “X” represents an attempt to literally x-out the word “Christ.” Because of this misconception, some Christians regard the name “Xmas” as downright blasphemous. In reality, the name Xmas was not invented by atheists at all; it is, in fact, merely a harmless abbreviation that was originally invented by Christians and has been in continuous use in various forms for nearly five hundred years.
The real history of the abbreviation “Xmas”
The English word Christ comes from the ancient Greek word χριστός (christós), which means “Anointed One.” It is formed from the Greek verb χρίω (chríō), meaning “to anoint with oil,” as a calque of the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (māšîaḥ), which is the root of the English word messiah. As it happens, the first letter of the word χριστός is the Greek letter chi ⟨X χ⟩, which, especially in its upper-cased form, looks exactly like the Latin letter ⟨X⟩. The second letter of the word is the letter rho ⟨Ρ ρ⟩.
One of the most ancient and widely used Christian symbols is the Chi Rho monogram ⟨☧⟩, which is formed from the upper-cased form of the letter chi plus the upper-cased form of the letter rho superimposed on top of each other. From the fourth century CE onwards, this symbol is absolutely ubiquitous in Christian art and iconography.
The Chi Rho monogram appears etched on the walls of Roman catacombs, carved on late Roman sarcophagi, carved on early Christian altars, and beautifully drawn in the pages of early medieval Insular manuscripts. It has been universally recognizable as a symbol of Jesus as Christ for over a millennium and a half.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a very early Chi Rho monogram from the Catacombs of San Callisto in Rome
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the plaque of a Roman sarcophagus dating to the fourth century CE depicting the Chi Rho monogram encircled by a wreath, symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a panel from a Roman sarcophagus dating to the middle of the fourth century CE depicting Roman soldiers beneath a gigantic Chi Rho monogram encircled by a wreath, symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus, currently held in the Vatican Museums
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Chi Rho monogram carved on a Christian altar from Khirbet Um El’Amad, Algeria, dating to the fourth century CE, now held in the Louvre Museum
ABOVE: The Book of Kells, folio 34r, dating to around the ninth century CE, bearing the Chi Rho monogram
ABOVE: Incipit from the Gospel of Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels (British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV), dating to between c. 715 and c. 720 CE, showing the Chi Rho monogram
The oldest attested use of the Greek letter chi in a version of the word Christmas in English occurs in one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of Old English annals that was originally compiled during the reign of King Alfred of Wessex (ruled c. 886 – 899 CE), but thereafter circulated in multiple versions, which were independently updated.
The specific version of the chronicle that is of relevance here was probably written in around 1100 CE. In the entry for the year 1021 CE, it uses the phrase “on Xp̄es mæsse uhtan,” which means “on the early morning of Christmas,” using versions of the letters chi and rho to write the first two letters of the word Christ.
In the Early Modern Period, it became common for people to abbreviate names and words containing the word Christ by simply writing the letter chi, the letter chi plus the letter ⟨T⟩, or the letter chi plus the letter rho in the place of the word Christ. As far as we can tell from extant sources, this was done purely for the sake of reducing the number of letters a person had to write and it was not motivated by any kind of secularist agenda. Thus, for instance, the name Christopher is sometimes abbreviated in Early Modern texts as Xtopher, the word Christian is sometimes abbreviated as Xp̄ian or Xtian, and the verb christen is sometimes abbreviated as Xp̄enned.
The earliest known attestation of the abbreviation X̄temmas for “Christmas” occurs in a letter written by King Edward VI to the Lord Deputy of Ireland on 26 November 1551. In the letter, Edward VI writes:
“Uppon the goode com̄endable s̄rvice doon by Sr Thomas Cusack, Knight, or Chauncelor there, we be pleased that he shall have, during the tyme of his s̄rvice in th’ office of Chauncelor there, the augmentac̄on of his fee to an other sum̄e of oon hundreth pounds by the yeare moore then he hath, to be payd likewise as his other fee is payd, from X̄temmas next following.”
For frame of reference, Edward VI wrote this letter over a decade before the birth of William Shakespeare, over half a century before the translation of the King James Version of the Bible, and over two hundred years before the American Revolutionary War.
ABOVE: Portrait painted by William Scrots in around 1550 depicting King Edward VI, who uses the abbreviation X̄temmas for “Christmas” in a letter written in the year 1551
The earliest known attestation of the exact form Xmas as an abbreviation for Christmas occurs in Rules and Customs of Standon School, an originally handwritten document produced by an unknown author in around the year 1753 that is included as an appendix in Bernard Ward’s book History of Saint Edmunds College Old Hall, published in 1893. The document in question uses both the fully written-out name Christmas and the abbreviated form Xmas in the same passage:
“There are 4 Vacations in ye Year viz. Christmas, Shrovetide, Easter and Whitsuntide. […] On all working days in ye Xmas and Whitsuntide Vacations, ye Scholars study at ye rate of an hour and a Quarter each day & all yt go home have proportionable Tasks set them & as ye end of these is to hinder them from forgeting [sic] what they have already learn’d they ought to relate thereunto.”
Thus, ironically, the name Xmas actually has a significantly longer history in the English-speaking world than many of our modern Christmas traditions, since, as I discuss in the same article I wrote in December 2019 that I linked earlier, many of the Christmas traditions that we think of as “ancient,” including the decorating of Christmas trees and exchanging of gifts, have actually only become widely popular in the English-speaking world within the past two hundred years.
Unfortunately, most people today are not aware that the word Christ comes from the Greek word Χριστός, so most people do not recognize the term Xmas as an abbreviation. This, combined with the term’s frequent use in advertising, has led many people to falsely believe that the name Xmas is some kind of dark, underhanded ploy by atheists to eliminate Christ from Christmas, when, in fact, it is merely a harmless abbreviation with a very long Christian pedigree.
This probably shouldn’t be surprising. Many other things that people think have been invented recently by atheists advancing a secularist agenda were actually invented by Christians hundreds of years ago. For instance, as I address in this article I wrote a few weeks ago, the “Common Era” (BCE/CE) dating notation was actually invented by Christians in the early seventeenth century and has been in continuous use ever since.
ABOVE: Photograph of a postcard from 1910 depicting Santa Claus with the words “I bring you a merry Xmas from _____.”
Short but very informative article.
Well everyone, it seems I ended up not taking much of a break after all, since I only stopped publishing articles for about a week. Nonetheless, I successfully turned in all my final papers for this semester and submitted my applications to ancient history PhD programs. I most likely will not know until March 2022 if I have been accepted anywhere. Multiple of my professors have told me that they think I have very strong chances, but, to be perfectly honest, I’m not nearly as confident as they are about this process.
In any case, I am back now and I should have a couple more articles coming before Christmas, if I am able to finish them before then.
To be frank, you weren’t really gone.
Well done and good luck
Congrats on getting the papers done!
Thank you! I was extremely anxious about the whole process. I’m still anxious about it now, but I guess at least now the applications are submitted.
Since small departments need to show “productivity” in the form of graduates, I suspect that you will receive multiple offers. Departments are looking for sure things and I think you may define that term. (Former Chemistry Professor, me)
It’s a small thing but if X stands for Christ wouldn’t Christopher have been written as Xopher nor Xtopher? Unless the name had a double T back then?
As I mention in the article, during the Early Modern Period, people sometimes abbreviated the word Christ as Xt. In fact, as I mention, the older form of Xmas is actually X̄temmas.
In Greek, Christopher is spelt as Χριστόφορος.
As Spencer writes, Christ is spelt, as Χρίστος (with a -i- giota and not -η- eta) in Greek.
Furthermore, the picture uploaded by Spencer shows the first two initials XP of Christ’s name in
Greek.
Nowadays, we tend to use the phrase Xmas for short instead of Christmas. The translation of Christmas or XMAS is deprived from the Greek words Χρίστος (Christ) and μας (mas) which means our. In Engish, “Our Christ.” In Greek, the word Christmas has another meaning Χριστούγεννα which means Christ’s Birth.
Spencer. Keep up the Good Work.
Very nice article, as usual! It’s nice to see the author of my favorite blog ever back!
Just a small musing of mine, though. Just because a word was born in a certain way, it doesn’t mean that the present usage reflects the original one. For instance, just because ‘Xmas’ was created in a Christian context, I don’t think that necessarily implies that it’s not used in order to ‘secularize Christmas’ now.
Mind you, I’m no native English speaker, and thus I don’t know the implications of such a word, but I would be surprised if there wasn’t at least a robust minority of people using it as a secular alternative to the orthography ‘Christmas’. And I have absolutely nothing against it.
Thank you for the kind words!
You make a very decent point regarding the fact that my article here is more about the origin and history of the abbreviation than about its current usage. This could quite reasonably be seen as a flaw.
I’ve been in historic Russian churches which have icons that use various abbreviations for “Jesus Christ”, e.g. IES XRC (bad approximation for the Cyrillic).
I was a Christian back in the 1970s, and I don’t recall anyone making a fuss over this back then. Like so much else, it seems to be an issue that’s been invented by the culture warriors of the past 30 years to whip up the rank and file.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe Bill O’Reilly is the one who was mainly responsible for popularizing the notion of the “War on Christmas.” He convinced a large number of conservative Christians that this “war” was a real thing and other conservative pundits have since seized on the same idea because they’ve realized it’s an effective way to get people outraged and upset against liberals.
My wife’s name is Cristina, and we have been shortening it to Xtina since a long time ago, just because it looks funny. At some time I learned that that name derives for the Latin word for Christian. At the same time a learned that “cretinous” has the same origin. Talking about secularizing…
– Very nice and deeply, well-argued article ! Thanks, Spencer… I would only to mention that you mean only the Western Europe and USA – in Eastern Europe it seems to me that the situation is other. Especially among Bulgarians (a Slavic people) Xmas is not popular; traditionally, for centuries, the fest here was and is “Koleda”. In half of Europe (Eastern) the fest is very different – for instance typical are songs “kolyadki” that masked people sing going around homes. The very “Grandfather Koleda”is an old (magician?) that is a desired guest in every home. Probably, this is the Sun, whose “death” and “rebirth” are the basis of the Slavic holiday of Koleda. “The god Koleda himself is the god of the winter solstice, but his image is almost completely lost in the mists of millennia. (His last ban from the Moscow Patriarchate was in 1697)”. And Pre-Christian are such typical actions, as divinations and predictions, and the game of luck, and the round pie on the fest table – a symbol of the Sun, and disguises and disguises as animals, spirits, etc .; Pre-Christian is the “koleduvane” itself – the caroling of houses in the houses with different -Christmas and not only – songs (called “kolyadki” in most Slavic nations). Fortune-tellings on ash, prognosis for wealth, meteorological divination etc. are millennial traditions. Yes, now this -probably- old and biggest pagan fest of the Sun birth is well mixed with the Christian Fest and is very rich and interesting fest here, that we like very much. But … I don’t like the modern consumers mania that begin from November… :)) ` (Only to add: 1. The name of my son and my father are “Christo”- but we never write “Xto”or anything similar. 2. Bulgarians are very atheistic people – although most people could say they are “Christians”, in fact believers are not more than 15-20%. )
Anglophone traditions might not be a direct tradition from roman festivities. Makes sense, since most of Germany was not part of the empire. Your mistake is considering that the rest of Europe falls in that remark. A simple example is that of the King Cake (I think that in Canada and New Orleans it’s still popular, as part of the Mardi Gras) which is a cake that includes a fava bean (a chtonic symbol also used for the Lemuria celebration). Many countries, such as Portugal and Spain never had the tradition of Saint Nicholas, and still had the tradition of exchanging gift, with a completely different reasoning, the gifts from the three Magii Kings. So, saying that, thoses traditions were reinvented during the middle ages, when the king cake clearly demonstrates that such traditions kept going, even off the record, is misleading.
“During the banquet (at the beginning or at the end of the Saturnalia, according to the different eras of ancient Rome)within each large familia,the Romans used the bean of a cake as if to draw lots the “Saturnalicius princeps” (prince of Saturnalia or disorder)4. The “king for a day” had the power to fulfill all his desires during the day (such as giving orders to his master) before being put to death, or more likely returning to his servile life. This made it possible to tighten domestic affections.
To ensure the random distribution of the cake shares, it was customary for the youngest to sit under the table and name the beneficiary of the share that was designated by the person in charge of the service.5.
Étienne Pasquier described in his Recherches de la France6 the ceremonies that were observed on this occasion: “The cake, cut into as many parts as there are invited, a small child is put under the table, which the master interrogates under the name of Phoebe (Phoebus or Apollo), as if it were one who, in the innocence of his age, represented an oracle of Apollo. To this interrogation, the child responds with a Latin word dominates (lord, master). On this, the master adjures him to tell to whom he will distribute the portion of the cake he holds in his hand, the child names it so that it falls into his mind, without acceptance of the dignity of persons, until the share is given where the bean is; the one who has it is reputed king of the company although he is less in authority. And, this fact, everyone overflows to drink, eat and dance7. » From the French wikipedia. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galette_des_rois#cite_note-7
Great article, didn’t know that Kepler was the creator of that nomenclature! Awesome guy!