Christ-mas

So, Christmas is coming. Have you ever thought of what all the hoopla is about? I don't mean the Santas and christmas trees and presents. Not that part. Let's think about it a little.

"Christmas". Where'd the word come from? As I understand it, it's an Old English term employed by the church. Christ-mas. The best dictionary in the world, The Oxford English Dictionary, helps us break the word up. We all know who Christ is. But what's the "-mas" part?

MASS n.1 as the second element in compounds occurs both with the sense ‘a (celebration of the) mass (of a kind specified by the first element)’ and with the sense ‘the festival of (the person or thing denoted by the first element)’.

We're more familiar with this word when used in terms of the Catholic Mass. This wasn't the only "-mas" that the old church celebrated. There was Martinsmas on November 11, the feast of St. Martin. There was Michaelmas on September 29, the feast of St Michael. There was Petermas on August 1, the fest of St. Peter. There was even Hallowmas on November 1 (making the day before - October 31 - Hallow's Eve, later shortened to Hallow'en, colloquially Halloween). So the -mas suffix tells us that there's a celebration for or concerning the first part of the word. On Christmas, it's a celebration for Christ.

I love etymology!