Chrismons: What’s in a name?

Pastor explores origins of those distinctly Christian tree decorations

By Rev. Bethany Peerbolte| Special to Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Bethany Peerbolte (Contributed photo)

LOUISVILLE – Anthropologists believe you can tell what is important to a community based on how many names they have for the same thing. The Inuit people who live in northern Canada have 50 words to describe snow. Each word describes a slightly different classification of snow, like “aqilokoq” for softly falling snow and “piegnartoq” for snow that’s good for sledding.

For the Inuit people, knowing these slight variations is important to everyday life. In Christian communities we have many names for God. The trinity itself is an example of our need to distinguish the different qualities of God. The names we use to reference Jesus are an important feature of Chrismons, Christmas decorations with symbols to help Christians remember that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday.

The lettering can be confusing because it is based on Greek words and the Greek alphabet. There are two major words to know when deciphering the lettering on a Chrismon. The first is XPICTOC (sounds like “Christos”). This is the Greek word for Christ, Jesus’ title. Go nuts and write “Merry X-Mas” on your cards this year. No one can accuse you of taking Christ out of Christmas – he is right there in the “X!” C-Mas sounds like a medical cream to me, so maybe stay away from that one.

The most common way to use the letters in Jesus’ Greek title is to take the first two letters, XP, to create a Chi-Rho. The letters are usually superimposed on each other with the arms of the X sticking out from the tail of the P. This symbol is all over Christian art.

Sometimes the Chi-Rho is positioned with the X turned on its side so there is only two arms sticking out of the P. This looks like a cross and the loop of the P looks like Jesus’ head, evoking the image of Jesus on the cross. There’s the story that in 312 CE, Emperor Constantine dreamed of a heavenly symbol that if put on the shields of his soldiers would ensure him of victory in battle. When Constantine woke up, he had the symbol drawn on all the shields of his army and he won the Battle of Milvian Bridge. That symbol was the Chi-Rho. I wonder if I make this my Facebook picture I’d win all my online arguments.

The second word to know for Chrismon decoding is IHCOYC, which sounds similar to the Spanish pronunciation of Jesus. The most common way to use this is to pull out the first three letters, IHC or IHS (Point of confusion – the whole matching English letters to Greek letters does not work perfectly). Contrary to the belief that IHS means “I hate Satan” or “I hate Santa” or “I hate school” (all guessed by my unchurched friends) IHS is simply a nickname for Jesus.

Acronyms can be confusing, especially when we are using Greek words and letters in an English-speaking context. Using shorthand acronyms can leave people feeling out of the loop and cause hurt feelings similar to when you aren’t in on the inside joke.

In the early church this confusion was a good thing. It meant outsiders did not know what was written in their homes and Christians could hide their faith identity from oppressors. In the United States we have the safety to express our faith and speak in a way that allows everyone to be part of the inner circle. I hope this post has made you feel more in on the lingo and that you will share the information with others so our circle can grow.

The Rev. Bethany Peerbolte is the associate pastor of youth and mission at First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Mich. Her blog, millennialepistle.com, seeks to make scripture relevant to young Christians, and Christians young at heart, by connecting scripture to whatever is trending that week. This story is excerpted from her Dec. 19 post.