by Winter Story 2014
Once again, our granddaughters’ annual Winter Story is up! Please click here. This one looks to be partly inspired by their brood of chickens and their new kittens. The crocodile is revisiting from an earlier Winter Story.
You can see their other annual winter stories on their site as well. Long time readers may recall that I’ve posted each of them here every year with grandmotherly delight and pride. Enjoy!
We hope you have had or are presently enjoying a wonderful Christmas Day with loved ones or dear friends, as are we.
PS – Did you know…
The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ,” later shortened to “Christ-Mass.” The even shorter form “Xmas” – first used in Europe in the 1500s – is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ’s name: Xristos, therefore “X-Mass.”
And I thought “Xmas” was just a modern lazy way to write what it means!
December 25, 2014 in Being an Artist, Culture, Home by Marja-Leena
Naughty croc! I especially like the chickens…
I think many people thought the same–probably that happened when we quit making children study classical languages, and nobody knew the word Χριστός.
Marly, glad you enjoyed the chickens! Interesting point about the study of classical languages. In public high school we had two years of Latin, then French for four years, both compulsory. Latin was dropped later in the curricula. Certainly no Greek. Thanks for the Greek characters for Christos! Did you study it?
Thank you teach! 🙂 I was certainly ignorant of the use of the letter X.
Well Tom, it was all new to me too!
For some reason, I knew that the X is not meant as a disrespectful shortcut, but now you have me wondering if it’s all connected to signing an X on a contract or at the end of a letter instead of spelling one’s name. I’ve often wondered, why an X?
That’s a good question, dear R! I know many use ‘x’ in signing off an email or text message as a ‘kiss’, or ‘xox’ and a kisses and hug, sometimes even without his or her name. My daughters do that. It seems to me it’s part of the abbreviation of language thanks to cell phones rather than a connection to the Greek X. As a contract signature, I don’t know where that comes from… perhaps when it was used by illiterates.