Stefan's Florilegium

Xmas-art

Xmas-art - 1/15/97

"The True Meaning of Xmas" by Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester.

NOTE: See also the files: 12th-nite-msg, holidays-msg, Yule-msg, St-Nicholas-art,
pop-religion-art, Christmas-art, icons-msg, Icons-art.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set
of files, called Stefanıs Florilegium.

These files are available on the Internet at:
http://www.florilegium.org

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author.

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be
reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first
or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris
AKA: Stefan li Rous
stefan@florilegium.org
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The True Meaning of Xmas
--Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester

As Twelfth Night approaches and another holiday season passes into memory,
I once again think back about how many times I heard one person or another say
in the past month that the term "Xmas" is some sort of plot to remove religion
from the Christmas holiday season. By their reasoning,the name of Christ has
conveniently been "x-ed" out of Christmas.

While it is true that in the 20th century, we use the term "x-ed out" to
mean "removed", the "X" in Xmas is not this sort of X, nor was the abbreviation
invented by mercenary merchants of our century out to make a buck, nor does
substituting the "X" for Christ expunge Jesus from Christmas.

From as far back as the rise in production of Latin parchment manuscripts
in Late Antiquity (n the 4th century AD), copyists have found it convenient to
abbreviate commonly used words and terms by "contraction"--that is, by dropping
most of the letters out of a word and drawing a line above those which remain to
indicate the abbreviation. In a rapidly Christianizing age, copyists of sacred
text noted thatcertain names kept coming up: Iesus Christus, Deus (God),
Dominus (Lord), Spirtus Sancti (Holy Spirit), and so forth. The abbreviations
devised for these names are termed Nomina Sacra. All of the names listed a
moment ago were in Latin, with the exception of Christıs--the Gospels were
originally in Greek, and so the abbreviation for Iesus Christus uses Greek
letters instead, looking like this:

___ ___ ___ ___
IHC XPC or IHS XPS

In the first abbreviation, the "I" is the Greek letter iota, the "H" is
eta (or "e" in Latin), and the "C" is sigma (or "s" in Latin), thus yielding
"IES" in Latin letters (some later translators into vernacular languages did not
realize the ³H² was really an eta, and thus mistakenly believed the proper
spelling of Iesus or Jesus was Jhesus or Ihesus!) In the second part, the "X"
is chi (or Ch in Latin letters), the "P" is rho (or R in Latin), and the "C"
sigma, as above. The second pair of abbreviations were developed in the later
Middle Ages as variants of the originals, and, in fact, may often be spotted on
banners in modern churches, especially hanging from the pulpit or lectern--
especially the abbreviation for Jesus. You can also spot this particular
abbreviation hanging on the little tag above Christ on crucifixes. You may also
spot the Chi-Rho, which was placed by the emperor Constantine on his war
standards after his conversion and has since been another common Christian
motif; it looks like a letter "P" with the letter "X" superimposed over it.

Thus was born the use of the Greek chi (which looks like a Latin X) as
shorthand for Christ. Medieval copyists found it rather convenient in other
compound words using Christ, such as Xana for "Christiana" and, inevitably, Xmas
for Christmas, an abbreviation which appears by 1100. The only thing which has
altered over the years is the dropping of the dash over the "X" which signaled
"abbreviation" to the medieval reader, and which differentiated this "X" from
the Roman numeral X.

Unfortunately, few modern folk know of the extensive use of abbreviations
in medieval texts, and so are understandably confused by them when they
encounter them today (I remember staring at the banners in churches before I
took palaeography, trying to figure out what "IHS" stood for; I was once told
(incorrectly) that it stood for "In Hoc Signo"). They also err in pronouncing
Xmas as "Ex-mas"; a medieval liturgist encountering this abbreviation would
have read it aloud as "Christmas".

So, the next time you see Xmas on the sign at the local tree lot, I hope
you will smile, and remember that this abbreviation is a living relic of the
Middle Ages.

------
Copyright 1996 by Susan Carroll-Clark, 53 Thorncliffe Park Dr. #611,
Toronto, Ontario M4H 1L1 CANADA. Permission granted for
republication in SCA-related publications, provided author is credited
and receives a copy.

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