Where Did The Word Christmas Come From
Christmas or feast of the nativity is an annual festival commemorating the birth of jesus christ observed primarily on december 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.
Where did the word christmas come from. In approximately 1131 it was replaced by the word cristes messe. The word christmas comes from middle english cristemasse which in turn comes from old english cristes messe literally meaning christ s mass. The word mass means death and was coined originally by the roman catholic church and belongs exclusively to the church of rome. Many other terms have been used for the holiday as well though.
In the early days of the christian church christians used the letter. Yule was used before christmas according to britannica and that term likely had. Christmas christian festival celebrating the birth of jesus the english term christmas mass on christ s day is of fairly recent origin. The phrase dates back to 1038 more than 1 000 years after jesus christ was born while the word xmas originated in the 16th century.
In short christmas is strictly a roman catholic word. A feast central to the christian liturgical year it is preceded by the season of advent or the nativity fast and initiates the season of christmastide which historically in the. The ritual of the mass involves the death of christ and the distribution of the host a word taken from the latin word hostiall meaning victim. Of course we are not talking about the physical mass of christ s body.
The earlier term yule may have derived from the germanic jōl or the anglo saxon geōl which referred to the feast of the winter solstice the corresponding terms in other languages navidad in spanish natale in italian noël in french all. Where did exchanging gifts come from and what does god s word say about it. It has to do with the history of the word christ. The origin of mass in the christian sense of the word is not entirely clear.
According to an article entitled simply christmas found on wikipedia the word christmas actually comes from the term christ s mass which originated from the old english phrase cristesmæsse which was first recorded in 1038.