Christmas: The Name of the Holiday

The word Christmas means “Mass of Christ”, shortened to “Christ-Mass”. An even shorter form is Xmas – first used in Europe in the 1500’s – is derived from the Greek alphabet, in which X is the first letter of Christ’s name: Xristos, therefore “X-mass”. The French word for Christmas, Noel, means “new birth”. The word Yule comes from Old Norse hweol meaning “wheel”, describing the sun as a wheel of fire, which was celebrated at the winter solstice. From hweolor-tid, meaning the "turning time of the sun", came the modern Scandinavian word Juletid, and the English Yuletide. In many languages, the word for nativity is used for the holiday, such as “Navidad” in Spanish, “Nadal” in Portuguese, or “Natale” in Italian.