[ARRL-OK] Fwd: My X-MAS 1.5 cents worth...

[D C *Mac* Macdonald]

The following originated with WA9VLK on the "National" (radio gear)
mailing list.  I found it quite interesting, especially the "new"
radio abbreviation discussed at the end!


73 & 58 - Mac, K2GKK

 
 
----  Original Message  ----
 
From: telegrapher
To: national at mailman.qth.net
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:43:57 -0600
Subject: [National] My X-MAS 1 1/2-cents worth...
 
To those weary of the "Xmas debate," please bear with me as I actually
have a RADIO point to make...

There is no doubt our social engineers have worked overtime to strip
Christians of the respect and honor of our observance, Christmas.
 
Almost as annually predictable as the atheists whining about a crèche
in front of a library somewhere or some non-Christians complaining about
their various notions in the annual "X-MAS Debate."
 
It may come as a surprise to some that Xmas was the original name of
"Christmas" used by the churches between 200 to 300 A.D.  The letter "X"
was not a letter but, instead it was a religious symbol of the church
that meant "Christ."  Later, the Greeks and Romans adopted the symbol
of a fish and called it an "ex."  The fish symbol we often see on places
of business or trunks of cars to indicate its owner is a Christian is
familiar even today.  Later the fish symbol was added to the alphabet
and changed to a cross, then morphed into what we know today as the
letter "X," two diagonal lines crossing in the middle.

"X MAS" meant a holy day in which a religious mass or feast took place
to honor Christ.  And it was called, "ex-muss."

Many years later the religious symbol, "X" was morphed into secular uses
for any word beginning with the first few letters of the word "Christ."
 
>From that we became accustomed to XTAL for crystal (among others) but I
have never heard anyone complaining about the word "XTAL."

I hope this does not come off as my sounding like I am some sort of
pompous religious scholar; I may be pompous but I am indeed no scholar
and certainly no religious scholar.  However you can verify this
information easily in any World Book Encyclopedia under "Christmas" or
in Isaac Asimov's book, Asimov's Guide to the Bible and, no doubt,
countless other sources.

So there is little need to get thy nose bent out of shape when someone
uses the term, "Xmas" as it is a term of very holy origin. Of course,
using it as syntax to casually abbreviate the word, "Christmas" is
probably not strictly proper either.  But "XMAS" does not connote
blasphemy or irreverence in its pure usage.
 
We all know the meaning of "73."  As a solely CW operator I prefer to
use the term, "58" as Christmastime.  Not too many hams anymore know
the meaning of "58."  When they were devising abbreviations to cut down
on repetitive phrases in telegraph message forms, the forerunner of the
ITU assigned "73" to mean "best regards."  Among the other numerical
shortcuts you will find "58," which means "Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year."
 
58 DE WA9VLK
 
(Now, isn't that easier?)
 
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