Winning English - Mastering Idioms, Slang, and References
Merry Christmas! • Eve • Christmas miracle • Christmas came early • Holiday spirit • Peace on earth and good will toward men
Welcome to a special Christmas edition of Winning English! While not every reader of Winning English is Christian, Christmas is major cultural event in the West (and elsewhere), which means it has had an impact on the English language. Today, I cover a few sayings and words associated with the holiday and explain a bit about them.
First, the traditional greeting is Merry Christmas! Well, that’s the traditional greeting in American English. In British English, it’s more traditional to say Happy Christmas! But either one works just fine.
As you likely already know, Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian savior, Jesus Christ. What you might not know is that the word “Christmas” is actually a contraction of “Christ’s mass”. A “mass” is a religious service in the Roman Catholic tradition. The days around Christmas are called Christmastime.
You might be reading this newsletter on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. If it’s still the 24th of December, then it’s Christmas Eve. “Eve” is an old-fashioned form of the word “evening”. Evening, of course, is the the early hours of nighttime. The word “eve” is used for many holidays - for example, New Year’s Eve.
For many Christians, the birth of Jesus is considered a miracle because, in the religious tradition, God is his father. A “miracle” is an event that should not happen in nature, but magically does happen because God causes it to happen.
This has led to a common saying around this time, which is, “It’s a Christmas miracle!” People will say this when something really good and unexpected happens during Christmastime.
Also during Christmastime, as you likely know, people give and receive gifts. That’s led to another common Christmastime saying, which is, “Christmas came early this year!” People say this when something good happens to them, as if it was a Christmas gift that they received early.
Finally, Christmastime is generally thought of as a time of the year when people should be nice to one another. If people are nice and in a good mood, it’s said that they have “caught the holiday spirit”. The “spirit” of an event or holiday is the combination of emotions and goals around that event.
In the case of Christmas, the spirit is often expressed with the phrase, “Peace on earth and good will toward men”. This saying is taken indirectly from the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible, the Christian holy book. “Good will”, in this saying, means having positive feelings toward other human beings - both men and women, by the way. Using “men” by itself is an old-fashioned way to refer to all of humanity.
Thanks for reading Winning English! Remember to listen to the podcast, as well, to reinforce your learning. And as always, please like the posts, leave a comment, and if you like it, tell a friend. Talk soon!
Merry Christmas!