Christmas

=== Other names ===

The holiday has had various other English names throughout its history. The [[Anglo-Saxons]] referred to the feast as "midwinter",<ref name="Hutton">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3PvQ5bqoBkC&pg=PT21 |title=The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-285448-3 |author-link=Ronald Hutton}}</ref><ref>"Midwinter" in [http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/022849 Bosworth & Toller.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113145029/http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/022849 |date=January 13, 2012 }}</ref> or, more rarely, as {{lang|ang|Nātiuiteð}} (from the Latin {{lang|la|nātīvitās}} below).<ref name="Hutton" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZaxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22natiuited%22 |title=A History of Foreign Words in English |last=Serjeantson |first=Mary Sidney |year=1968}}</ref> ''[[Nativity of Jesus|Nativity]]'', meaning 'birth', is from the Latin {{lang|la|nātīvitās}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=nativity&searchmode=none|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=December 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113103140/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=nativity&searchmode=none|archive-date=January 13, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> In [[Old English]], {{lang|ang|Gēola}} ('[[Yule]]') referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which was eventually equated with Christian Christmas.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=yule&searchmode=none ''Yule''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113091314/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=yule&searchmode=none |date=January 13, 2012 }}, Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved December 12.</ref> 'Noel' (also 'Nowel' or 'Nowell', as in "[[The First Noel|The First Nowell]]") entered English in the late 14th century and is from the [[Old French]] {{lang|fro|noël}} or {{lang|fro|naël}}, itself ultimately from the Latin {{lang|la|nātālis (diēs)}} meaning 'birth (day)'.<ref>Online Etymology Dictionary, [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=noel&searchmode=none ''Noel''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113100315/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=noel&searchmode=none |date=January 13, 2012 }}, accessed January 3, 2022</ref>

''[[Koleda]]'' is the traditional Slavic name for Christmas and the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Толковый словарь Даля онлайн |url=https://slovardalja.net/word.php?wordid=13520 |access-date=December 25, 2022 |website=slovardalja.net}}</ref>