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Merry Christmas Origin and Prayers

“Christmas” is a word meaning Christ’s Mass. It is commonly spoken of as the day upon which the birth of the Savior is celebrated. However, there are few people who have taken the time or have the desire, to make a study of this question in order that they might really know the origin and purpose of this day. They take it for granted that it is the most notable day of the year, and continue to celebrate it in various ways: by religious formal worship, gluttonous eating, revealing, unbridled drinking, or more commonly, by the exchanging of useless, costly, unwarranted, or embarrassing gifts. We are all aware of the fact that during Christmas season the spirit of rivalry and competition enters into the giving of gifts, and the poor often give more than they can afford, and thus leave honest debts unpaid, or go without necessities until they have caught up with their “Christmas-spending-spree.”

The word ‘Merry’, which owes its root to the Old English ‘myrige’, originally meant ‘pleasant, and agreeable’ rather than joyous or jolly. For instance, in other ‘merry’ phrases such as ‘make merry’ (circa 1300), ‘Merry England’ (circa 1400) and ‘the merry month of May (1560s’), the word ‘merry’ was commonly used to mean ‘pleasant, peaceful and agreeable’. Many puritanical preferred Happy Christmas over Merry Christmas including the Methodist Victorian middle-class for whom, ‘merry’ meant ‘tipsy’ or ‘drunk’ which obviously had a negative connotation w.r.t. Christmas celebrations. However, much of the credit for the common practice of using “Merry Christmas” goes to the famous author Charles Dickens of U.K., who popularized the phrase through his book ‘A Christmas Carol’. If you wish to learn more about the evolution of the word merry in Christmas greetings then go through the following lines.

Origin Of Merry Christmas

Even though Christmas has been celebrated since the 4th century AD, the first of any sort of Christmastime greeting appeared only in 1565. It first appeared in ‘The Hereford Municipal Manuscript’ in the lines, “And thus I comytt you to God, who send you a merry Christmas.” In 1699, a combined greeting of “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” was found in an informal letter which was written by an English admiral. The same greeting was also present in the sixteenth century secular English carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and also on the first ever commercial Christmas card which appeared in England in 1843.
During the mid-Victorian revival of the holiday, Charles Dickens’ first mentioned this greeting in his book, ‘A Christmas Carol’. The word Merry was now gradually coming to mean “jovial, cheerful, jolly and outgoing.” In the book, the cynical Ebenezer Scrooge blatantly rebuked this friendly greeting saying “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding.” However, following the visit from the Ghosts of Christmas, Scrooge exclaimed “I am as merry as a school-boy. A Merry Christmas to everybody!” and heartily exchanged the wish with everyone. Thus, the popularization of the phrase “Merry Christmas” in the Victorian era can be attributed to the success of ‘A Christmas Carol’.
The alternative “Happy Christmas” gained usage in the late 19th century and is still common in the U.K. and Ireland alongside “Merry Christmas”. But because for the Methodist Victorian middle-class, merry still meant “tipsy” or “drunk”, Queen Elizabeth II preferred “Happy Christmas”.
In America, poet Clement Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1823), the final line was initially written as “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night,”. But the greeting was changed in later editions and “Merry Christmas to all,” started appearing, suggesting the relative popularity of the phrases in the U.S.

Written above is the brief account of how the phrase “Merry Christmas” came into usage. Though initially, the use of the phrase during the Christmas was much despised, today it is popular and most common in Christmas greetings.

A Christmas Prayer

Loving Father, Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
That we may share in the song of the angels,
The gladness of the shepherds,
And worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
And open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
And good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing, which Christ brings
And teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us
Happy to be thy children
And Christmas evening brings us
To our beds with grateful thoughts
Forgiving and forgiven
For Jesus sake
Amen.
– Robert Louis Stevenson

Christmas Tree Blessing
Holy Creator of Trees,
Bless with your abundant grace
This our Christmas tree as a symbol of joy.
May its evergreen branches be a sign
Of your never-fading promises
May its colorful lights and ornaments call us
To decorate with loving our home and our world
May the gifts that surround this tree
Be symbols of the gifts we have received
From the tree of Christ’s cross
Holy Christmas tree within our home,
May joy and peace come and nest
In your branches and in our hearts
Amen.

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Mohit Arora

Founder at CatchUpdates

Hi, I am Mohit Arora, a passionate blogger and addicted reader. You can check my another blog TutorialsJar where I share programming tutorials.

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elves says:

December 15, 2020 at 11:12 pm

The same greeting was also present in the sixteenth-century secular English carol I Wish You a Merry Christmas. It is commonly spoken of as the day upon which the birth of the Savior is celebrated.