By Fr John Flader
Can you tell me something about the name Christmas and also the meaning of names like Yule and Noel? Also, why there are three different Mass texts for Christmas?
THE original Latin names for Christmas were Festum Nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (“Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ”) and Dies Natalis Domini (“Birthday of the Lord”).
These Latin names gave rise to the name for Christmas in many languages.
For example, in Italy it is Natale, in southern France Nadal, in Portugal Natal and in Spain Navidad.
In most of the Slavic languages too the name means “Nativity”.
Another common name for Christmas is Noël.
Jesuit Father Francis Weiser in his Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (Harcourt, Brace 1952), explained the French name Noël possibly comes from the word nowel which means “news”.
There is an old English Christmas verse where an angel says – “I come from hevin to tell the best nowellis that ever befell.”
The English word Christmas is based on the pattern of the old names for other feasts, where the suffix “mas”, for “Mass”, is added to the name of the feast.
Thus we have such feasts as Michaelmas, Martinmas, Candlemas, and so on.
Fr Weiser said the first mention of the name “Christes Maesse”, or Mass of Christ, dates from the year 1038.
The name reminds us that the most important part of the Christmas celebration is the Sacrifice of the Mass.
A similar name for Christmas is found in the Dutch and German languages.
In the Dutch it is Kersmis (“Mass of Christ”) and in German, Christmesse.
The present-day German name, however, is Weihnacht or, in the plural, Weihnachten, meaning “blessed, or holy, night”.
Slavic languages like Czech and Slovak have a similar term.
The Lithuanian word for Christmas Kaledos is derived from the verb Kaledoti, meaning to beg or pray. Hence, Christmas is the “Day of Prayer”.
As for the word “Yule”, its origin has been disputed.
Some scholars argued it derived from the old Germanic word Jol (also Iul or Giul), meaning a turning wheel, which in this case would be the wheel of the sun rising after the winter solstice.
A better explanation, however, would be the Anglo-Saxon word geol, meaning “feast”.
Since the greatest popular feast in pre-Christian times was the celebration of the winter solstice, the whole month of December was called geola (feast month).
This name was preserved in both English and German and was later applied to the feast of Christmas.
Hence “Yule”, or “Yuletide”, in English and “Jul” in German.
Fr Weiser made an interesting comment on the greeting “Merry Christmas”.
He says that originally the word “merry” did not mean “joyful” or “happy” as it does today, but rather “blessed, peaceful, or pleasant”.
In this sense it expressed the wish for spiritual blessedness rather than earthly happiness.
The Christmas carol “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” is an example of this original meaning.
The comma after the word merry indicates that the word “merry” is not an adjective describing “gentlemen”, but rather an adverb describing “rest”. The meaning, therefore, is not “God rest you, joyful gentlemen”, but rather “God rest you peacefully, gentlemen”.
The custom of the three Masses goes back to the early centuries, where it was reserved to the Pope alone, being extended to the universal Church around the end of the first millennium.
The first Mass was celebrated around midnight by the Pope with a small congregation in the little chapel of the manger in the church of St Mary Major in Rome.
There in the fifth century Pope Sixtus III erected a chapel with a manger, considered to be a faithful replica of the crib in Bethlehem.
The second Christmas Mass was celebrated by the Pope at dawn in the palace church of the Byzantine governor in honour of the martyr St Anastasia, whose body had been transferred from Constantinople to that church around 465.
It was attended mainly by the Byzantines.
The public and official Mass was celebrated by the Pope on Christmas Day in the church of St Peter, attended by a large crowd.
In the eleventh century this Mass was transferred to St Mary Major, which was closer to the Lateran Palace where the pope resided.
At present the texts for these Masses are those for the Midnight Mass, the Mass at dawn, and the Mass during the day. Following the gospels for the three Masses, the first Mass came to be called the “Angels Mass”, the second the “Shepherds Mass” and the third the “Mass of the Divine Word”.
