Christmas is on the Map
We are putting the festive season on the map. Well, not really. But did you know a lot of towns in Switzerland have festive names? If you speak Swiss German or plain old German you may have noticed. Although maybe even you have never heard of a city most fabulously named "Prosecco"! How about St. Nick, Holy Cross or Snowy Forest? Well, we admit we might have been taking things a bit too literal while translating. All in good fun, of course.
But before you dive into map, let us give you a small overview of howt e meaning and form of the word "Christmas" developed. Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ's mass". The word is recorded as Crīstesmæsse in 1038 and Cristes-messe in 1131. The form Christenmas was also historically used. It derives from Middle English Cristenmasse, meaning "Christian mass". Then again Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), "Christ". In addition to "Christmas", the holiday has been known by various other names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as "midwinter"In Old English, Gēola (Yule) referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which was eventually equated with Christian Christmas. "Noel" entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis meaning "birth" (day).
And to circle back to German: Weihnachten, Wiehnacht or Wienacht? Doesn't really matter to us. As long as there is a festive spirit. because we just love data. and the holidays.
That was pretty awesome already, right? But behold our version for all those non-native speakers out there:
