Re: Country Related: Christmas
| From: | Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, December 21, 1998, 18:49 |
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On Mon, 21 Dec 1998 08:48:22 -0500 Carlos Thompson
<cthompso@...> writes:
>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.
In Hebrew, according to my dictionary, "christmas" is called _hhag
hamolad_, which seems to mean "holiday of the birth"....although _molad_
is an unusual form of the word - the correct term would be _leida_.
_molad_ could be some kind of causative form, i'm not sure.
In Yiddish, christmas eve is called _nitlnacht_ (ch = /x/). _nitl_ from
the latin root where "navidad" and "nativity" come from, plus _nacht_,
"night". On nitlnacht in Europe, Jews would refrain from studying
Torah/Talmud, etc - because it was too dangerous to go out at night
between home and the synagogue or beit-medrash.
-Stephen (Steg)
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