Casting Pearls- Are you Merry This Christmas?

        Everybody tells other people ‘Merry’ Christmas’ but how many people know exactly what is meant by the words they say. The meaning of Christmas is pretty much self explanatory but I’ll explain it anyway. Christ-mas is actually a two part word, it is about why the day is special, it is when we celebrate the birth of Christ. and the second part of the word is mas which is short for mass or church service.
        The part that is confusing to some is the word Merry. There have been many explanations, including that it is meant to represent the mother of Christ, Mary. The most common explanation is that Merry means Joyful or Happy. It means so much more though. If we understand the Old English meaning of Merry it becomes much more evident.
        In the Old English it was used to represent both Happy or Joyful, and also to represent Mighty or Strong. It is most commonly seen used that way in the song ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ in which it refers to the Mighty or Very Influential Gentlemen. The world today has tried to change the meaning to be more acceptable to the current definition by placing a comma between Merry and Gentlemen. You will not find this in the older versions of the song.
        The other thing about Christmas is the short way it is said, Xmas.  Many people believe it is only a short way to say it and leave Christ out of Christmas. Most people do not understand that the Greek word for Christ is Χριστός and the letter X is a short way to say Χριστός. Saying Xmas is not leaving Christ out, it is only a short way of saying Christ in Greek and was started by the Roman Catholics when they began to use English commonly and were still using Greek for some of their Bible editions. They Simply used the X to hold the place of Christ in some words that were still written in the Greek and the X was an abbreviation for the greek word for Christ, just like JC is commonly used for abbreviating Jesus Christ today.