Re: Country Related: Christmas

On Tue, 22 Dec 1998 07:43:17 +0000 "Raymond A. Brown"
<raybrown@...> writes:
>At 10:14 am -0500 21/12/98, Padraic Brown wrote:
>>On Mon, 21 Dec 1998, Carlos Thompson wrote:
>>> In the Etimology question again I would like to know how these
>hollidays
>>> are called in different languages, but more important: what the
>names
>>> means.
>MAESSE
>Probably not a specific Mass  - in Old English the feminine noun
>'maesse'
>could, indeed, mean 'mass' (eucharist), but also had a more generuc
>meaning
>"festival": Cristes maesse "Christ's festival'.  The 2nd February is
>still
>known as 'Candlemas' (Candle festival) among us Catholics in the UK
>(and is
>a Quarter Day in Scotland) - it's the 40th day after Christmas and
>commemorates Mary & Joseph's bringing of Jesus to the Temple at
>Jerusalem
>to offer him to God according to Mosaic law and redeeming him by
>offering
>two turtle doves.
Firstborn sons are redeemed from the kohanim ("priests") on the
thirty-first day from their birth.  The parents give the kohein 5 "sela`"
coins, or their equivalent.  The son isn't offered to God - the
commandment is to redeem him, and *not* to hand him over.

-Stephen (Steg)

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