Where does the word Christmas come from?

As a teacher, I always encourage my students to ask questions. As a result, one of my students made me a Facebook page named "Itanong mo kay April" (Ask April) before due to repeated questions. This page now has 24,600 followers and I changed it to Teacher of the Faith which I use to explain things about faith in simple ways and words.

One of the questions asked to me is about Christmas. Of course, we have lots of questions about Christmas. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Not everyone celebrates Christmas on Dec. 25, but celebrate Christmas on January 7, it's because they use the Julian calendar, and before, Christmas is celebrated on this day before the Gregorian calendar I won't also discuss whether it is proper to greet Merry Christmas or Happy holidays which oftentimes result in debates and conflicts during the Christmas season.

I am sure that Jesus won't mind whatever we might greet each other. After all, Jesus preached about peace, joy, and love in the kingdom of God, and He won't be happy if, during his birth season, we are at "war" with each other.

So before I go to a long post again, here's the question:

Ma'am, where does the word Christmas come from? •

A: The word Christmas comes from the Latin words, "Christes maesse" which means Christ Mass or the Mass celebrated in honor of the Birth of Christ.

It is the only Mass before which is allowed to be celebrated three times: at dawn, in the morning, and the evening.

That’s why you’ll notice that we have lots of Masses on Christmas starting from Dec 24 on Christmas eve until December 25. Later on, this becomes Christmass until it becomes Christmas.

And because we are fond of shortening things, the other cause of "conflict", we say or write, "Merry X-Mas."

It is not wrong to do this, because X is the Greek letter Chi which is the first letter of Jesus in Greek.

So, an Advance Merry Christmas. Remember, it is not about the WHEN (date) but the WHAT, the WHO, and the WHY (reason). It is not about removing Christ in Christmas, but it is how we retain Christ in our lives as we celebrate the season of Christmas.

Do you have questions regarding Christmas? Just comment down.