Merry X-Mas

https://crookedcreek.live/2018/11/26/merry-xmas/

 

Happy Xmas

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

So this is Christmas

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

The old and the young

 

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let’s hope it’s a good one

Without any fear

 

And so this is Christmas

For weak and for strong

For rich and the poor ones

 

The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white

For yellow and red ones

Let’s stop all the fight

 

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let’s hope it’s a good one

Without any fear

 

War is over, if you want it

War is over now

Happy Christmas

 

Photo of Lennon & Ono by Pixabay

Angel Photo by Dianne Bynum

Merry Xmas

Origin of Merry Xmas 

There was a time when I thought writing, “Merry Xmas” was just lazy. Some folks feel it is worse than lazy because to them it leaves Christ out of Christmas. Actually nothing could be further from the truth. 

The New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek word for Christ is Χριστος. Today we can cut and paste and print and therefore we don’t think much about what it must have like centuries ago when texts were being written and copied by hand.

According to Greg Carey, Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary: “Early manuscripts of the Greek New Testament dating to the third and fourth centuries used “X” as an abbreviation for Christ…The abbreviation helped manuscript writers fit more words on a page, reducing the time and cost of producing the texts…” 

So, Merry Xmas is nothing new. It wasn’t started by non-believers. It is not a war on Christmas. Seminary students have been using the abbreviation “Xian” for “Christian” forever. 

See more at: http://www.patheos.com/…/formerlyfu…/keeping-the-x-in-xmas/…

Needlework by my friend, Pat Weaver, many years ago.

 

Theme graphic in title by Pixabay