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WIKIBOOKS
DISPONIBILI
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ART
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BUSINESS&LAW
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CARS
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TRADITIONS
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ARTICLES IN THE BOOK

  1. A Christmas Carol
  2. Advent
  3. Advent calendar
  4. Advent wreath
  5. Aguinaldo
  6. Ashen faggot
  7. Belsnickel
  8. Bethlehem
  9. Biblical Magi
  10. Black Friday
  11. Boxing Day
  12. Bubble light
  13. Buche de Noël
  14. Burgermeister Meisterburger
  15. Caganer
  16. Candy cane
  17. Christkind
  18. Christmas cake
  19. Christmas card
  20. Christmas carol
  21. Christmas cracker
  22. Christmas dinner
  23. Christmas Eve
  24. Christmas flowers
  25. Christmas gift-bringers around the world
  26. Christmas lights
  27. Christmas market
  28. Christmas music
  29. Christmas number one
  30. Christmas ornament
  31. Christmas pickle
  32. Christmas pudding
  33. Christmas pyramid
  34. Christmas seal
  35. Christmas stamp
  36. Christmas stocking
  37. Christmas stories
  38. Christmastide
  39. Christmas traditions
  40. Christmas trees
  41. Christmas village
  42. Christmas worldwide
  43. Companions of Saint Nicholas
  44. Cranberry sauce
  45. David Zancai
  46. Ded Moroz
  47. Ebenezer Scrooge
  48. Eggnog
  49. Elf
  50. Epiphany
  51. Father Christmas
  52. Frosty the Snowman
  53. Fruitcake
  54. Ghost of Christmas Past
  55. Ghost of Christmas Present
  56. Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
  57. Gingerbread
  58. Gryla
  59. Heat Miser
  60. History of some Christmas traditions
  61. Hogmanay
  62. Holly
  63. Jack Frost
  64. Jolasveinar
  65. Joulupukki
  66. Julemanden
  67. Koleda
  68. La Befana
  69. Lebkuchen
  70. Little Christmas
  71. Marzipan
  72. Mince pie
  73. Mistletoe
  74. Mr. Bingle
  75. Mrs. Claus
  76. Mulled wine
  77. Nativity Fast
  78. Nativity of Jesus
  79. Nativity scene
  80. Nine Lessons and Carols
  81. North Pole, Alaska
  82. Nutcracker
  83. Olentzero
  84. Origins of Santa Claus
  85. Pandoro
  86. Panettone
  87. Panforte
  88. Pantomime
  89. Père Noël
  90. Poinsettia
  91. Regifting
  92. Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
  93. Royal Christmas Message
  94. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  95. Saint Nicholas
  96. Santa Claus
  97. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
  98. Santa Claus on film
  99. Santa Claus parade
  100. Santa Claus' reindeer
  101. Santa Claus rituals
  102. Santa's Grotto
  103. Santon
  104. Secret Santa
  105. Snap-dragon
  106. Snow baby
  107. Snow Miser
  108. Star of Bethlehem
  109. Stollen
  110. The Grinch
  111. Tiny Tim
  112. Tio de Nadal
  113. Tomte
  114. Tree topper
  115. Turron
  116. Twelfth Night
  117. Twelve days of Christmas
  118. Twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper
  119. Wassail
  120. Wassailing
  121. White Christmas
  122. Winter holiday greetings
  123. Winter holiday season
  124. Xmas
  125. Yule
  126. Yule Goat
  127. Yule Lads
  128. Yule log
  129. Zwarte Piet

 

 
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CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS
This article is from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_holiday_greetings

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License 

Winter holiday greetings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Winter holiday greetings are a selection of greetings that are often spoken with good intentions to strangers, family, friends, or other people during the months of December and January. Winter holidays with greetings include Christmas, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving (in the USA), and (more recently) Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Kwanzaa in the United States. Some greetings are more prevalent than others, depending on the cultural and religious status of any given area.

Typically, a greeting consists of the word "Happy" followed by the holiday, such as "Happy Hanukkah" or "Happy New Year," although the phrase "Merry Christmas" is a notable exception. When one wishes to convey a greeting to another regardless of which particular holiday the other may personally observe, the collective phrase "Happy Holidays" is often used as a simple way to refer to all of the winter holidays, or to the three major holidays of Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. However, some controversy has aroused regarding the phrase "Happy Holidays" as an alleged attempt to diminish Christmas.

Merry/Happy Christmas

The greetings and farewells "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Christmas" are traditionally used in North America, the United Kingdom, and Ireland beginning a few weeks prior to the Christmas holiday on December 25 of every year. "Merry" dominates in North America; "happy" in the United Kingdom and Ireland. (See "History" for more on this.)

The phrase is often proffered when it is known that the receiver is a Christian or celebrates Christmas. In the beginning of the 21st century, as Christians in increasingly multi-cultural societies continue becoming more sensitive to and respectful of non-Christians and non-Christian faiths, the phrase has become somewhat less ubiquitous than it was in the 20th century. (However, the commercialization of the actual holiday continues unabated.) The nonreligious sometimes use the greeting as well, however in this case its meaning focuses more on the secular aspects of Christmas, rather than the Nativity of Jesus.

Its meanings and variations are:

  • As "Merry Christmas", the traditionally used greeting for Americans, comprising of merry (jolly, happy) and Christmas (Old English: Cristes mæsse, for Christ's Mass).
  • As "Merry Xmas", usually used to avoid the length of "Merry Christmas", with the "X" (sometimes controversially) replacing "Christ". (see Xmas)
  • As "Happy Christmas", an equivalent that is commonly used in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
  • As "Feliz Navidad", which is the Spanish language equivalent of "Happy Christmas", but is frequently used in English context. The phrase "Felices Fiestas", the Spanish language counterpart of "Happy Holidays" has also been used in some Spanish speaking communities.

As of 2005, this greeting still remains popular among countries with large Christian populations, including, among others, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Mexico. It also remains popular in non-Christian areas such as the People's Republic of China and Japan, where Christmas is still widely celebrated due to Western influences. Though it has somewhat decreased in popularity in the United States and Canada over the past decades, polls from 2005 indicate that it is more popular than "Happy Holidays" or other alternatives[1][2].

History of the phrase

"Merry," derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely "pleasant" rather than joyous or jolly (as in the phrase "merry month of May").

Though Christmas has been celebrated since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" (thus incorporating two greetings) was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase appeared in the first Christmas card, produced in England in 1843.

The then relatively new term "Merry Christmas" figured prominently in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 1843. The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting and broods on the foolishness of those who utter it. "If I could work my will," says Scrooge, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding." After the Spirits of Christmas effect his transformation, he is able to heartily exchange the wish with all he meets. The continued popularity of A Christmas Carol and the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies have led some to credit Dickens with popularizing, or even originating, the phrase "Merry Christmas"[3].

The alternative "Happy Christmas" gained wide usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the United Kingdom and Ireland. One reason may be the alternative meaning, still current there, of "merry" as "tipsy" or "drunk." Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer "Happy Christmas" for this reason[4]. In American poet Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), the final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night," has been changed in many editions to "Merry Christmas to all", perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the United States.

Happy Holidays

"Happy Holidays" is a seasonal greeting common in the United States and Canada, and is typically used during the holiday season. "Holiday" is derived from Middle English holidai meaning "holy day"[1]. It is used as an inclusive greeting during the holiday season around Christmas to those who do not celebrate it, but instead other winter holidays like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

In the United States, it can have several variations and meanings:

  • As "Happy Holiday," an English translation of the Hebrew Hag Sameach greeting on Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot
  • As "Happy Holiday," a substitution for "Merry Christmas"
  • As "Happy Holidays," a collective and inclusive wish for the period encompassing Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Christmas and the New Year

In the United States, "Happy Holidays" (along with the similarly generalized "Season's Greetings") has become the common greeting in the public sphere within the past decade, such as department stores, public schools and greeting cards.

Advocates of the phrase view it as an inclusive and inoffensive phrase that does not give precedence to one religion or occasion. Critics view it as an insipid alternative to "Merry Christmas," and view it as diminishing the role of Christianity in Christmas, or part of an alleged secular "War on Christmas". Others consider the controversy to be itself hysterical.[2]

A popular commercial variant is depicted in Honda ads that air during the holiday season. The automaker uses the slogan "Happy Honda Days," as clever wordplay on the phrase.

Happy Holidays As a Song

There is a Christmas song called Happy Holidays. First performed by Percy Faith, it has been covered by few other artists, including Andy Williams, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme and Barry Manilow. The lyrics are as follows:

"Happy Holiday, Happy Holiday, While the merry bells keep ringing, may your every wish come true;

Happy Holiday, Happy Holiday, May the calendar keep bringing Happy Holidays to you."

Season's Greetings

"Season's Greetings" is a greeting more commonly used as a motto on winter season greeting cards than as a spoken phrase. In addition to "Merry Christmas", Victorian Christmas cards bore a variety of salutations, including "Compliments of the Season" and "Christmas Greetings." By the late 19th century, "With the Season's Greetings" or simply "The Season's Greetings" began appearing. By the 1920s it had been shortened to "Season's Greetings,"[3] and has been a greeting card fixture ever since. Several White House Christmas cards, including President Eisenhower's 1955 card, have featured the phrase.[4]

Some people believe that the "Season" in "Season's Greetings" is referring to the Christmas season. Due to this some people consider replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Season's Greetings" as an attack on their religion. Others say that it is pandering to a plurality of consumers by businesses so that they will make more money by hopefully not offending anyone by saying "Merry Christmas". Similar controversy has surrounded use of the phrase "Happy Holidays".

A differing opinion states that this saying is much more neutral and avoids elevating any one "holy" day over another. It may even be used to be more inclusive of other winter holidays (such as Kwanzaa or Hanukkah), or to acknowledge the possibility that the sayer does not believe in anything holy, including "holy-days".

The variant "Seasons Greetings," without an apostrophe, is more likely a mistake than an effort to extend the greeting to more than one season.

References

  • Marling, Karal Ann. Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
  • Online Etymology Dictionary
  • The Phrase Finder
  1. ^
  2. ^ "Merry Christmas" beats "Happy Holidays" In 2005 Usage (html). BusinessKnowledgeSource.com (2005). Retrieved on 2006-06-12.
  3. ^ Dickens' Christmas Sequels (stm). LetsGo Online (1998). Retrieved on 2006-06-11.
  4. ^ Christmas Words and Phrases (html). The Phrase Finder (2004). Retrieved on 2006-06-11.

See also

  • Christmas
  • Christmas card
  • Christmas Eve
  • Winterval
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_holiday_greetings"