Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, guys!!

May your day be filled with much love, holiday cheer, cheesey Christmas tunes, and blinky colored lights.

Ooh, you asked for it, fun fact time!

Fun Fact:

Why is it called ‘Christmas’?

In medieval England, the name of feast being celebrated was joined to the word “Mass”, and this became the name of the day. For example, the feast of St. Michael is called “Michaelmas”… And so, in English, the feast of the birth of Christ is called “Christmas”.

The English word “merry” did not originally convey “jolly, mirthful”. It was more along the lines of “blessed, peaceful” — a deep down inner joy rather than revelry.

One gets a sense of its original meaning in the well-known carol “God rest ye merry, gentlemen.” As can seen from the comma, the word is not used to describe jolly gentlemen, but rather it is a blessing from God invoked upon them — “God rest ye peacefully, gentlemen.”

Thus, “Merry Cristmas, ” when spoken to one another, is a blessing.

From: The Little Blue Advent Book © 2005 Diocese of Saginaw

Maybe I should start incorporating fun facts into my entries more often. Maybe I should go to sleep now.


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2 responses to “Merry Christmas”

  1. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    I think you just wanted an excuse to say “blinky colored lights.”

  2. Jamie Avatar
    Jamie

    Ironically, there were no blinky lights since the power at my parents’ house was out for 12 hours. Hah