Christmas
Christmas (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a widely observed holiday, celebrated generally on December 25 by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.
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Famous quotes containing the word christmas:
“Please to put a nickel,
Please to put a dime.
How petitions trickle
In at Christmas time!”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)
“I saw three ships come sailing by,
Come sailing by, come sailing by,
I saw three ships come sailing by,
On Christmas Day in the morning.”
—Unknown. As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. . .
Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938)
“The sixth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Six geese a-laying,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 26–28)