Thursday, December 2, 2010

Congratulations!

Congratulations goes to Kathy (Concretenprimroses) and to

for winning the trivia contest from yesterday.

I also want to apologize for having offended anyone but I thought it was good to know just where the "X" came from in the first place. 

We tend to think that people have become lazy in modern times and yet this abbreviation has been around for hundreds of years.  And now that you know where the "X" comes from, I'm sure you'll be noticing the symbol and others like it everywhere.  Take this one, for example:

It's a Chi Rho or, in Greek, "XP," the first two letters of Christ.  Did you notice that the "P" looks like a shepherd's crook?

Now, take a look at this piece of art:

In many portraits like this, Jesus is holding His right hand in a gesture that I always thought was Him offering a blessing.  Have you tried to hold your hand like that or like this one?  It's kind of awkward.  Don't you think so?  Well, guess what?  It turns out that His right hand is forming the "XP" or Chi Rho.  It was there all the time and we didn't know it.  Isn't that amazing?

Make sure you stop by for tomorrow's free file.  It's a pretty and versatile one that I hope you'll enjoy using!

Until then, Happy Creative Time!

4 comments:

debenj said...

Very interesting. Always thought it was just a lazy/quick way of writing Christmas. Thanks Ileana for the explaination and CONGRATULATIONS to Rockin Robin

Anna said...

Congrats to Kathy!!!
I hope no one would get offended by learning things. I really enjoyed this and learning. My granddaughter Presley brought it to my attention that the Bible does not say 3 wise men...just names three gifts. Thanks for teaching me :)

concretenprimroses said...

thank you so much! That is so interesting about the hands.
I'm trying to decide on a file, so many lovely ones. My craft robo doesn't work right now (new computer doesn't seem to want to accept it!) but I'll get it going again soon.
Having a new pretty will motivate me to figure it out.
Thanks again,
Kathy

Sue aka barracudasue said...

I was NOT offended in any way, Ileana...I just took the X the wrong way ALL these years! I'm VERY happy to learn new things and I'm glad I got over my stubbornness and looked it up. I feel SO stupid for NOT knowing that the X actually stood for Christ and that it wasn't X-ing Him out!

Congrats to the winners! WTG!