Thanks for that Patrick, I have heard of this also and I am glad to hear all this interesting history coming through our friendly list. Never too old to learn something new. Patrick, Have the monsoons arrived up your way? We are waitiing for them down here on the coast where our sugar cane crops need a good drink and the ants are invading the house and crawling up the walls...so they must know that the rain cannot be too far away. But now, just for all the weather observers like me, when we email, lets all add the area we live, and what the weather is like at your place today. I hear the weather in Britian is frightfull at the moment so some of them have had a miserable Xmas/Christmas with flooding etc. What about you? Kind regards Mary ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Kissane" <patrick@octa4.net.au> To: <irl-kerry@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 1:22 PM Subject: [IRL-KERRY] Xmas While we are on the subject of the origin of X in Xmas, readers might like to know that the origin of Christmas is Christ Mass i.e. the Mass of Christ. Other -mas suffix days are Martinmas on 11th November, Michaelmas on the 29th September and Candlemas on the 2nd February. Patrick Kissane in monsoonal tropical northern Australia. _______________ --------------- Policies of the IRL-Kerry List: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/mailing.html To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-KERRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message. To subscribe to the Digest version of the list, please send an email to IRL-KERRY-D-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message. To visit the County Kerry Research and Resources Page go to: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/ Share your stuff! If you transcribed research data, share it with the Irish genealogy community. Contribute it to the Kerry website to reach a wide audience. Contact Ann Hammer, data maintenance. Her contact info is at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/ contrib.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to IRL-KERRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4259 / Virus Database: 3658/6952 - Release Date: 12/26/13