X-mass and growing up as a wayfer

[waysider]

Just curious. What is a creche?

CRECHE

[crystalclearblue]

CRECHE

Thanks Waysider. Our family had one of those. I never knew it was called that. I remember I liked to play with it as a kid.

[Mister P-Mosh]

Just curious. What is a creche?

I was wondering the same thing so I googled it. I've never heard it called that, usually just a nativity.

[Mark Clarke]

In the Way, we were discouraged from using the word "Christmas" because the word meant "Mass for Christ".

However, I've since found out that this policy could not be justified from the scriptures. In fact, the opposite is inferred by the epistles.

Could you elaborate on that a bit?

When I was younger, I remember that certain people had tried to avoid having to say the word "Christ" by changing "Christmas" to "Xmas". It seems that the word "Christ" grates on some peoples lips.

I have since found out that "Xmas" is not a way to take Christ out of the word, as is often thought. It has been an abbreviation for Christmas for about a thousand years, and is related to the common use of X as an abbreviation for Christ (X representing chi, the first letter of Christ in Greek) that goes all the way back to the early church. Other words based on Christ were also abbreviated that way, such as Xtian for Christian.

However, the Way said that you can't take "Christ" out of "Christ"-mas, because he was never there to start with. Whereas that is a matter of subjective fact, it is not ALL that there is to say on the subject.

I agree. I recently discovered there is very little historic evidence of Christians adopting Pagan customs "just to get along" as is often claimed these days. There is more evidence that the early Christians decided to celebrate Christmas at the same time as the Pagan holiday, not as a compromise but to provide an alternative to it. I guess it all depends on how you look at things.

It was certainly embarrasing to have to greet your relatives with "Happy Household Holidays" and look for cards that didn't have the word "Christmas" on them. "Season's Greetings" seemed to be OK at the time.

The truth of the matter is that we should just be glad that Christ is acknowledged at all !!! - don't you think?

All I succeded in doing by adopting this hard-hearted mentality was to put a stumbling block in people's path that made it more difficult for them to see the truth. Maybe I should have been a little bit more circumspect in my attitude!

I agree!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Edited December 5, 2009 by Mark Clarke