Over time, people began to place this sign on household utensils, clothes, and jewelry. They believed that the cross-shaped sign protects them from evil spirits.
"The cross is a Christian symbol and an object of worship in many religions, to which supernatural magical properties are attributed. The shape of the cross developed in antiquity, apparently by analogy with the position of two wooden sticks when making fire through friction, which was of great importance in the life of primitive people. The veneration of the cross became widespread in ancient religious beliefs. From polytheistic religions, the cross passed into monotheistic. Buddhists decorated the cross with "imprints of the feet of the Buddha" and depicted the cross on their amulets. Christianity also adopted the symbol of the cross and associated it with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, who allegedly suffered for the sins of people. The cross as a sacred symbol is recognized by Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism. Some Christian denominations do not recognize the sacredness of the cross, such as Baptists, Adventists and a number of other Protestant denominations. The cult of the cross in Christian churches serves as one of the means of instilling in believers the need to follow the example of Christ, who patiently carried his cross to Golgotha, humbly accepted the trials that fell to his lot "(Atheist's Pocket Dictionary. Moscow, edited by M.P. Novikov, political literature publishing house , 1985, p. 133) It is also noted in the "Atheistic Dictionary": "The cross is a sacred symbol in Christianity, an object of religious veneration in Orthodoxy and Catholicism. According to the Christian version, Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, which was the basis for turning the image of this execution tool into a religious symbol. In fact, scientific evidence shows that the cross was venerated in pre-Christian cults. His images were discovered during archaeological excavations in different parts of the world, in particular, in South America and New Zealand. It has been established that it served as an object of worship of the ancient peoples as a symbol of fire, which was originally obtained by rubbing two crossed sticks, a symbol of the sun and eternal life. In early Christianity, the veneration of the "pagan symbol" was rejected. Only in the 4th century, after the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine, Elena, on a pilgrimage to Palestine, allegedly found the cross on which Christ was crucified, his official veneration was introduced in Christianity. Images of Jesus crucified on a cross for the first time are found in the 8th century. In different Christian movements, different crosses are revered: among Catholics – four-pointed, among Orthodox – four-, six-, eight-pointed, among Old Believers – eight-pointed. she really discovered the cross, which was the instrument of the execution of Jesus, then an exact copy of it would become a sacred symbol for all Christians. It was also established that criminals in ancient Rome were executed not on crosses, but on a pillar with a crossbar. Thus, the Christian version does not stand critics. Scientific evidence supports the conclusion that Christians borrowed the veneration of the cross from other cults. This, in particular, is the reason that in some Christian currents the cult of the cross is rejected (Baptists, Adventists, other Protestant churches)." (Atheistic dictionary. Moscow, under the general editorship of M.P. Novikov, publishing house of political literature, 1985, pp. 218-219).