Naturally when I was a child I wasn’t too impressed by the word “Christmas”. It was an acceptable word, if not too creative. Then when I got into high school we read a Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles IIRC. And they mentioned the holiday Michaelmas (pronounced “mik’l-mus” [short “I”]), Sep. 29, for the Archangel Michael. This peaked my interest a little, because after all, I thought Christmas was the only “-mas”. I now knew there were more. But I didn’t make any conscious effort to uncover them. But they did come up here and there, in books, with random searches in dictionaries, etc.
So far this is the comprehensive list of all the “-mas’s” I have uncovered (I hope I don’t forget any, because I am saying from memory): Candlemas (Feb. 2), Lammas (Aug. 1, in England esp.), Michaelmas (Sept. 29), Hallowmas (an old name for All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1), Martinmas (Nov. 11, the patron saint of reformed drunks interestingly), Christmas (duh), and Childermas (Holy Innocents’ Day, Dec. 28–an “old-fashioned” name). I also once read in a book by an British author “Roodmas”. No further explanation was given. Now the “rood” was another name for the cross of Jesus. But I have no idea when this date is or what exactly it is for–does anyone else know (esp. from Britain):)?
Well, that is my comprehensive list to-date. Did I miss anything? And please tell me if you find this subject interesting too. I find it hard to believe I am the only person fascinated by words–esp. when they are variations on a theme.
By far, most of those are merely plurals of words ending in “ma”, hardly the sort of thing this thread is really about.
In case the OP is unaware, the “-mas” in these names comes from “mass”, as in the celebration of the Eucharist, in turn deriving from the service’s (at one time) concluding words “Ite, missa est” sending people off, with the meaning of “missa” being as described by Cunctator.
Not at all intending to resurrect a zombie thread. But I was kind of taken aback by this site.
As you can see, it has many more examples than just the ones I included. Good.
But one example I have been a little confused by is “Andermas”, the alleged feast of St. Andrew.
I have been doing internet searches. And I have even checked my own unabridged dictionary (which otherwise has just about every English word in existence in it).
What on earth is Andermas? I suspect the author of this website just misspelled the actual word. Does anyone know what he is referring to? Or is there really such a feast day as “Andermas”?
I deliberately started this thread as a complete reference of “-mases”. If there is one I am missing, I would really like to know.
I think it’s quite possible that different spellings (within reason) would all be accepted - regional variations etc. Including having or not having the possessive “s” in the middle. I’d pronounce the name section as you usually pronounce that name, possessive-ized or not as the case may be, and end with “mas” as in Christmas.
