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Can someone tell me the etymology of the word Christmas?
Where did the word Christmas come from? Also, What was the name of the man we think made up the birthday of Christ as being December 25? Thank you.
For the record, I do believe in Christ and celebrate him at Christmas. I simply heard a story that a hermit/priest supposedly thought Christ was born in December. He got a vision and then made a theory based on that. I just wondered if anyone else had heard this.
7 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
25th of Decembe means nothing in the original Catholic calendar. It is in fact an old pagan celebration, the Druidic tree festival (I kid you not!!). It also falls during Hannukah and several other ancient pagan festivals such as Winter solstice.
When Catholicism started to convert the Pagans (ie. Celts, Vikings, Romans, Greeks, etc.) they borrowed heavily from already established Pagan rituals, symbols and holidays.
Moon phase celebrations were turned into saint's feast days.
St. Valentines day is a prime example. It used to be a Roman fertility and match making festival. To swing the Pagans their way, the Catholic church assigned it as the feast day of St. Valentine; a priest who was martyred by the Roman Empire. Nothing at all to do with romantic love.
There's a fair bit of debate over when Jesus was actually born but at the moment, based on the astrological descriptors in the bible, most scholars believe it was September or October.
- ckm1956Lv 71 decade ago
I think it came from "Christ's Mass".
No one person made up the birthday. The Church at large settled on 12/25 as the day to celebrate Christ's birth.
- William RLv 71 decade ago
The word Christmas originated as a contraction of "Christ's mass". It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038, compounded from Old English derivatives of the Greek christos and the Latin missa.[1]
Source(s): "Christmas", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. - How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- 1 decade ago
The word Christ stems from the Middle and Old English word Crist meaning the anointed one, the Lord's Anointed. It is borrowed from the Latin Christus and from the Greek Christos also meaning the anointed one. The Greek is a translation of Hebrew mashiah meaning anointed of the Lord or Messiah. In the word Christmas, the suffix mas evolves from the Old English word maesse meaning festival, feast day or mass.
- MLJLv 61 decade ago
WHY? Is it not meaningful enough if its not on the correct day? I hope your as concerned about how you celebrate or if you actually do believe in Christ and Christmas to begin with. Cause you might not, you didn't say you did.
It doesn't matter what the day was........does it? Just that there is a day that has been set aside to celebrate the day He was born should be good enough.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Christ.
the day when Jesus Christ was born
