I got this from Wikipedia:

After the conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain in the early 7th century, Christmas was referred to as geol, the name of the pre-Christian solstice festival from which the current English word ‘Yule’ is derived. The word “Christmas” is a contraction meaning “Christ’s mass.” It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038. Dutch has a similar word, Kerstmis often shortened to Kerst. The words for the holiday in Spanish (navidad), Portuguese (natal), French (noël), Italian (natale), and Catalan (nadal) refer more explicitly to the Nativity. In contrast, the German name Weihnachten means simply “hallowed night.”

[I wonder if our Bahasa Malaysia’s Hari Natal is derived from Italian.]

Christmas is sometimes shortened to Xmas, an abbreviation that has a long history. In early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter (chi), is the first letter of Christ. Since the mid-sixteenth century, or the similar Roman letter X, was used as an abbreviation for Christ.

You can read Zewt’s blog on his views of what is the ‘X’ in Xmas.

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I just started a new legal blog (or blawg) called Legally Blawg. You may want to bookmark this or remember the address LegallyBlawg.com (just got this registered)!

As the name suggest, it endeavours to cover practical legal issues faced by Malaysians (such as Wills, sales and purchase, tenancy and MyKad issues), and legal regulation of the Internet (such as how to blog without being sued or caught under Seditions Act!). Sometimes civil rights and constitutional law issues will also be discussed. While the focus is on Malaysia, legal developments in other jurisdictions will be considered as well.

Spread the word.

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With all the buzz about Yellow in the blogosphere and ordinary people getting searched and questioned by the police for wearing yellow, I ask the question: What is the meaning & significance of Yellow in different cultures?

At this point in time and in the context of Malaysia, Yellow is the colour of our Royalty. Thus the point of wearing Yellow on the 10th November’s rally symbolic of our appeal to the King (Agung).

There are of course other meanings associated with Yellow.

Interestingly, in Malaysia - the term budaya kuning (lit. “yellow culture”) is used to refer to lewd or uncouth behaviour, with the implication that such culture is an import from Western societies. Yellow is also commonly associated with jealousy and deceit.

I just hope no one from our government controlled media picked these few ideas up and indulge in Yellow Journalism (sensationalist journalism that distorts, exaggerates, or exploits news to maximize profit.) although they could easily accuse us (bloggers) of the same.

Continue reading →

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