Christmas by any other name…There are many Christmas names around the world and their meaning is different.
The English word Christmas comes from a phrase Christ’s mass. In Old English, people spelled it as Crīstesmæsse and Cristes-messe, and in Middle English it became Cristemasse. The earliest mention of the word in text dates from 1038. Christ is an English version of the Greek word Khrīstos (Χριστός), which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Māšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ) – Messiah, while mas comes from Latin missa – Eucharist. The history of the term Xmas is also pretty ancient – the X comes from the use of Greek letter “χ” (pronounced similarly to “ch” in Christ) as an abbreviation for Christ.
Christmas names in other languages also rely on the same sources as English. In Romance languages, they are based on the Latin word for birth – Navidad in Spanish, Natal in Portuguese and Noël in French. In Northern Europe it is called Jul, invoking the name of the old pagan festival.
However, some languages rely on other sources: Serbian and Croatian word Božić is a diminutive of the word Bog – God, meaning that in these languages people call Christmas “Little God” – referring to Jesus as the son of God. The German word Weihnachten is also unusual – it means “the holy night”.
Merry Christmas from the Quad Cities Daily. May your coming year be filled with peace and light.
~Avid.games
