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Season's Greetings, Happy Christmas, Merry Christmas, Nollaig Shona Dhuit etc

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    #32
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    During the week I say things like "have a nice day". At the end of the week I say things like "Have a nice weekend". Which is likely what I will say to all my work mates when I leave work tomorrow for the long weekend.

    I have never seen to modify that in response to seasons or festivals or anything. I have no recollection therefore of saying "Merry Christmas" to anyone or any of the other suggested substitutes for it.

    The only exception I can think of is "Happy New Year" which no one has taken exception to yet. Though I admit the number of Chinese and Jewish people I know is limited.


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    #33
    kunst nugget
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,375 ✭✭✭✭kunst nugget


    I'd say 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Christmas'. If some took offence to it, I'd tell them to go eat a cold cum sandwich. It be like me getting offended by someone saying 'Ramadan mubarak' to me. Honestly, if you don't celebrate it don't be offended that others do and take the greeting in the spirit it was intended.


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    #34
    jamesbere
    Registered Users Posts: 5,022 ✭✭✭jamesbere


    Go suck a lemon


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    #35
    Atari Jaguar
    Registered Users Posts: 985 ✭✭✭Atari Jaguar


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    During the week I say things like "have a nice day". At the end of the week I say things like "Have a nice weekend". Which is likely what I will say to all my work mates when I leave work tomorrow for the long weekend.

    I have never seen to modify that in response to seasons or festivals or anything. I have no recollection therefore of saying "Merry Christmas" to anyone or any of the other suggested substitutes for it.

    The only exception I can think of is "Happy New Year" which no one has taken exception to yet. Though I admit the number of Chinese and Jewish people I know is limited.

    Bah humbug!


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    #36
    Zubeneschamali
    Registered Users Posts: 16,686 ✭✭✭✭Zubeneschamali


    Deleted User wrote: »
    The only exception I can think of is "Happy New Year" which no one has taken exception to yet.

    I've never heard of anyone in Ireland taking exception to Happy Christmas, either.


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    #37
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,078 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    Really glad that votes for 'happy holidays' is still in single figures :))

    I never realised the snobbery between Happy Christmas Vs Merry Christmas.
    To me they're interchangable.

    PS:Gotta love post No 30 :D


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    #38
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    Happy Festivus?


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    #39
    Comhrá
    Registered Users Posts: 4,767 ✭✭✭Comhrá


    As the title says. which do you prefer?


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    #40
    Uriel.
    Registered Users Posts: 8,061 ✭✭✭Uriel.


    Who gives a ****. It's all the same.

    Have a happy merry Christmas op


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    #41
    Barry Badrinath
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,460 ✭✭✭Barry Badrinath


    Nollaig Shona


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    #42
    The flying mouse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,915 ✭✭✭The flying mouse


    Ah jaysus another crazy thread ...


    Have a merry happy Christmas Op


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    #43
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Nollaig Shona.


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    #44
    Skommando
    Registered Users Posts: 638 ✭✭✭Skommando


    It doesn't really matter, but Merry Christmas seems to fit the season better, with a Happy New Year ! :)


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    #45
    RobbingBandit
    Registered Users Posts: 18,099 ✭✭✭✭RobbingBandit


    Merry Christmas I'm a traditionalist, what ever the duck that's supposed to mean I'm unsure of. :p


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    #46
    Atlantic Dawn
    Registered Users Posts: 81,705 ✭✭✭✭Atlantic Dawn
    M


    Happy as the term Merry to me implies getting slaughtered drunk.


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    #47
    The_Valeyard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    Didn't we have this thread last week?


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    #48
    Míshásta
    Registered Users Posts: 634 ✭✭✭Míshásta


    RobbingBandit wrote: »
    Merry Christmas I'm a traditionalist, what ever the duck that's supposed to mean I'm unsure of. :p

    Well, you can't be an Irish traditionalist. "Happy Christmas" was the popular way of saying it, even if "Merry Christmas" was on the cards. However I seem to hear "Merry Christmas" more often among young people. Probably due to media exposure and the general trend to copy from our American and English friends.

    So "Happy Christmas" or whatever you're having yourself.

    Grianstad Sona Dhuit :)


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    #49
    mad muffin
    Registered Users Posts: 8,034 ✭✭✭mad muffin


    Savoury satan claws.


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    #50
    lawred2
    Registered Users Posts: 24,297 ✭✭✭✭lawred2


    tippman1 wrote: »
    As the title says. which do you prefer?

    What's the difference?


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    #51
    Míshásta
    Registered Users Posts: 634 ✭✭✭Míshásta


    lawred2 wrote: »
    What's the difference?

    Between St. Stephen's Day and Boxing Day? :D


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    #52
    learn_more
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,520 ✭✭✭learn_more


    lawred2 wrote: »
    What's the difference?

    Happy = sober, Merry = not sober


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    #53
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,078 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    The_Valeyard wrote: »
    Didn't we have this thread last week?

    Its the same thread, but somebody has got into the internals and changed my thread title :cool:

    Probably given it a new lease of life.


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    #54
    Comhrá
    Registered Users Posts: 4,767 ✭✭✭Comhrá


    LordSutch wrote: »
    Its the same thread, but somebody has got into the internals and changed my thread title :cool:

    Probably given it a new lease of life.

    Apologies LordSutch.......never spotted your earlier similar poll...:o


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    #55
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    LordSutch wrote: »
    Its the same thread, but somebody has got into the internals and changed my thread title :cool:

    Probably given it a new lease of life.

    Some pesky mod has gone and merged a new thread with this one.


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    #56
    LordSutch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,078 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    tippman1 wrote: »
    Apologies LordSutch.......never spotted your earlier similar poll...:o

    The poll attached to this thread IS MY POLL.

    Thats the 2nd time today that one of my thread Titles has been interfered with.

    Thank you & Happy Christmas.


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    #57
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    Between the Reformation and the nineteenth century, Christmas wasn't actually a big deal in most of the English-speaking world - it was considered a bit, well, too Catholic. It revived as a significant popular holiday in the mid-nineteenth century in both Britain and the US; some people give credit for this largely to Charles Dickens, who was insanely popular in both countries, and who of course is the author of that revolting morality tale, A Christmas Carol. Prince Albert, who brought German Christmas customs to the UK and made them fashionable, was also involved in the revival of Christmas as a major holiday.

    At the time "Merry Christmas" was the standard greeting on both sides of the Atlantic, but almost immediately there was a trend towards "Happy Christmas" in the UK, for the reason Deedsie points out - "merry" was considered too suggestive of shameless alcoholic debauch.

    "Happy Christmas" never really took off in the US, and is still rarely heard there. Evidently, "merry" doesn't have the same alcoholic connotations in the US (or, if it does, they don't care). It did take off in Britain, but only to a limited extent. Even in British English, it has always taken second place to "Merry Christmas". So it's not really an Americanism; "Happy Christmas" occurs almost exclusively on this side of the Atlantic, but "Merry Christmas" is found on both sides.

    "Happy Christmas" is characteristically Irish, though, in the sense that it has always been much more popular in Ireland than "Merry Christmas". To the extent that Hiberno-English is influenced by British English, it tends to be influenced by middle-class and upper-class varieties of British English, and this is where "Happy Christmas" particularly flourished. "Happy Christmas" was, and I think still is, the dominant greeting in Ireland - the only country in the Anglosphere, so far as I know, where this is true. It's a safe bet that the Santa poster with "Merry Christmas" on it that TOss Sweep's family had in the 1970s came from the UK.

    Excellent post. This very interesting OED blog on the etymology of 'Merry Christmas' corroborates and expands it:
    .... Merry Christmas is hardly a newcomer. It is actually the earlier of the two phrases by more than a century. In 1534, it is attested in the exceptionally un-jovial environs of the Tower of London, in a letter from the condemned bishop John Fisher to Henry VIII’s trusted minister Thomas Cromwell. It is difficult not to read irony in his closing lines to a man who orchestrated his imprisonment: “And thus our Lord send yow a mery Christenmas, and a comfortable to yowr hearts desyer.” More festively, the English West Country Christmas carol “We wish you a Merry Christmas” is also thought to date to the 16th century. It is tempting to give the refrain of that ubiquitous song some of the credit for the common distinction between a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
    Happy Christmas, then, is the interloper. Analysis of historical databases shows that, Ireland aside, Merry Christmas has always been much more common than this later phrase, which first came on the scene in the 17th century. The earliest examples of Happy Christmas refer more to joyousness at the birth of Christ than to the gaiety of the festival celebrating it, as in a 1676 reference to “The voice of truth, the Angel of peace who giving himselfe vnto us, gave the first happy Christmasse, and peace on earth to men of good will.” By the 19th century, though, as shown in Moore’s poem, Happy Christmas was typically just a synonym of Merry Christmas, and they were often used interchangeably.

    However, happy got a boost in the latter part of the century, when the temperance movement, especially in England, began to emphasize a semantic distinction between Merry Christmas and Happy Christmas, with use of the former being discouraged because of its association with alcoholic revelry.


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    #58
    JupiterKid
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 12,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    A Very Merry Christmas to Everyone!


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