Brumalia

plural noun

Bru·ma·lia

brüˈmālēə,

-lyə

: a pagan festival held at the winter solstice from which some features of the celebration of Christmas seem to have originated

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Late Greek broumália, borrowed from Latin *brūmālia, from neuter plural of brūmālis "of the winter solstice, of midwinter"

Note: The Greek word occurs in the writing of 6th-century Byzantine antiquaries such as John Malalas and in particular in the De Mensibus of John Lydus/John the Lydian, but Brūmālia is not attested in Classical Latin (nor, apparently, is there any evidence left by the Romans themselves for such a festival). See J.R. Crawford, "De Bruma et Brumalibus festis," Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Band 23 (Jahrgang 1914/19, published 1920), pp. 365-96 (the author's 1914 Harvard doctoral dissertation).