Keeping Christ in X-Mas?

By MICHAEL MERCADO
The holidays are, without a doubt, a special time of year. It culminates on Dec. 25th when many gather with their families to celebrate and to remember the birth of Christ- when the Word became incarnate. One of the ways in which people display their seasonal greetings is by writing, saying, or conveying in another way the moniker, “Merry X-mas”. There are some who say that using the term “Merry X-mas” is fine while others are adamantly against it saying, “Keep Christ in Christmas.”
They believe that by saying X-mas, we are robbing the significance of the holiday or we are waging war against the name of Jesus Christ. Quite on the contrary, however, in using the phrase “X-mas,” you are doing precisely that– keeping Christ in Christmas.
The “X” in X-mas actually has deep Christian roots to the very first few centuries of Christianity. Since Greek was a predominant language throughout the Roman Empire during the time of Christ and since all of the books of the New Testament were written in Greek, it then should come as no surprise that the apostles of the early Church used Greek in both letters and in liturgical services.
A part of early liturgies was a blessing in which the presiding priest would form the fingers on his right hand in the shape of the Greek letters “ICXC”. He would do this by keeping his index finger straight and bending his middle finger to look like the letter “C.” Then, crossing his thumb and ring finger to make the “X” and bending his pinky to make it look like the letter “C”, he would make the letters ICXC. The first two letters are the first and last letters of “Jesus” in Greek (Ιησούς) and the second set of letters are the first and last letters of “Christ” in Greek (Χριστός).
One must remember that in Ancient Greek, the sigma (Σ) was formed differently and looked like the letter “C”. In doing this, the priest extended a blessing to the Christian community. We see similar examples of this in early and even modern Byzantine iconography which shows Christ and the saints making the same sign. The tradition of the presiding priest blessing with his hand in such a way still exists in the Orthodox Church which has its roots back to the 1st century and the priests of the later Roman Catholic Church make a similar sign when blessing, but this sign has since changed for them and has been simplified.
When we look at Byzantine iconography and the significance of the “X” in Christianity; we quickly discover that the letter “X” is an abbreviation for saying the name “Christ” in Greek. This abbreviation can be found in iconography, manuscripts, and liturgical practices dating back as far as the first few centuries of Christianity! So when we look at a sign that says “Merry X-mas,” we must take a moment to appreciate the significance of the “X.” It is an ancient way of displaying the name of Christ which was written in icons for centuries. It is a part of the living liturgical life of the Church which was employed from the earliest of liturgies and has survived 2,000 years to the present day.
Merry X-mas and I pray that everyone has an enjoyable holiday season with their loved ones in remembering what is important to each of us.
Michael Mercado is a current Master of Divinity student at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass. and is a graduate of Middle Township High School Class of 2008.