Ironic that you call it stupid considering your blatant admission to a lack of knowledge on the subject. X comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter in their word that translates to Christ. The Latin word mas.....well, I'm sure you can figure that one out. Therefore, it is an abbreviation of Christ-mas, and it has been in use for at LEAST a couple hundred years now.
No, ma'am. It just means that Christians took the Yule out of Yuletide.
It is amazing how sensitive believers can be about their faith, yet at the same time, know so little about the history of the faith they profess to hold so dear. Let me tell you all a little story about the origins of this precious holiday you all seem to think is being "stolen" from you.
See, once upon a time (1st Century AD), it was actually considered a sin to celebrate Christ's birth (or any god, for that matter). In fact, no date of birth was even discussed in any of the gospels. Only vague references to shepherds tending to their flocks, which makes it impossible for Christ to have been born in the winter, much less December. In any event, the date was considered unimportant because Christians at that time believed it was his death for our sins and resurrection that were supposed to be remembered and celebrated, not his birth.
Around the 2nd Century, amidst outrage from many churches, some cultures/nations started to celebrate Christ's birth on January 6th, a date most Orthodox Eastern European churches have stuck to even today. It wasn't till around 350 AD that Pope Julius I decided to officially move the date to December 25th. Why the move? Simple. To try and get more pagans to convert. You see, the pagans still far outnumbered the Christians at this point, so it was believed moving the date to coincide with their many feasts, rituals and celebrations would make converting easier. And so, they decided to celebrate the birth of Christ on the same day as the ancient Babylonians celebrated the feast of the Son of Isis, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia (honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture), the northern European pagans celebrated the birth of Mithras (sun god, for which yule logs were symbolically burned), etc. These were all forms of what is known as Winter Solstice.
From this move, not only did we get the current date of Christmas, but also EVERY SINGLE TRADITION that Christians today believe to be part of Christmas. From the concept of bringing a tree into the home, to decorating it, to putting up lights, to exchanging gifts, to kissing under mistletoe, to hollyberries, to caroling......every single one of them started as a pagan tradition as a part of one or more of the above mentioned Winter Solstice celebrations.
In other words, Christmas as we know it today was nothing more than a marketing strategy by the church to try to lure in more customers. Kind of ironic since Christians today are in an uproar about how Christmas is being stolen from THEM, and is becoming a commercial holiday, isn't it? Especially considering that engaging in pagan rituals is considered a huge sin, and the church was warning/completely against it prior to the Bible being canonized.
Originally Posted by dmahlikGT
