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How can Nollaig be Christmas AND December?

  • 24-12-2009 01:18AM
    #1
    Red Sleeping Beauty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,443 ✭✭✭


    I'm sorry I can't type Irish - despite retaining a few words from school I can barely say, I have retained nothing I can write... BUT, I hvae a question and am interested int he answer and eytymology of the word(s).

    How can Nollaig be both Christmas and December? Can Nollaig Shona mean "Happy December" ? Is there a direct translation for Christ-mass ?


Comments

  • #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 31,828 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I did some Irish night classes a few weeks ago and the answer I got is that
    Nollag is christmas and mí na Nollaig is the month of December (month of christmas)


  • #3
    IIMII
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,366 ✭✭✭IIMII


    You could literally translate Christ Mass as the 'Mass of Christ' in Gaelic, but it's not a term I have ever hear used. In the English language you have Christ's Mass now known as Christmas as the name for that seasonal celebration. In Italian it is known as Natale which refers to birth.

    You might be better putting what makes sense in the English language out of your head in trying to undertsand this. For example, people can refer to Bealtaine and Samhain as both the feasts and the months of May and November.

    I presume that Nollag comes from Noel in French which I also presume comes from the latin (like the Italian use of Natale)

    So you have Christ's Mass in English and The Birth(day) in the other languages mentioned above (incl Gaelic) and in Spanish and Portuegese.

    In German, it's Weihnachten but I don't know Weih part means. The nacht (night) part would seem likely to indcate that Christmas as a word meaning Christ's Mass is primarily an English language expression, but again I don't know that for a fact..

    Anyway, ramble over... :)


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