‘Twas the night before….

The following is something I put on the site, “Enriching Your Life Now,” two years ago.  I thought you might enjoy it.

Can I say, “Christmas?”  Is that going to offend someone?

What about, “Happy Holidays?”  Is that offensive too?

All this political correctness is enough to drive you nuts, if you let it drive you nuts!  I’m not!

Whatever your plans are for this time of year I sincerely hope that you enjoy them!  We really ought to try to enjoy every day and live it to the fullest.

And I also thought you might like to see a whole list of greetings!

The English greetings often begin with saying “Have a…”, written “Wishing you a…” or sometimes end in “…to all!” as a declaration.

Nollaig Shona Duit – Ireland, Gaeilge .. Irish national language greeting for “Happy Christmas”

Happy Holidays – Canada, United States

Buone Feste – Italian

Felices Fiestas – Spanish

Season’s Greetings – Usually refers to upcoming winter holidays, but technically could refer to any season.

Merry Christmas – Australia, United States, The phrase is often immediately followed by and a Happy New Year.

Happy Christmas – United Kingdom

Merry Xmas – Written English (often informal), supposedly referencing the Greek word  for Christ.

Merry Yuletide, Good Yuletide or Happy Yuletide – English, can generally refer to the period of cultural festivities surrounding Yule, Winter solstice, Christmas and the New Year.

Merry Midwinter – English greeting, generally for the period of the winter solstice.

God jul – Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, lit. “Good Yule”

Hyvää joulua – Finnish

Glædelig jul – Danish

Joyous Yule – Usually a Wiccan or Neopagan greeting for the Winter solstice

Joyeux Noël – France, Quebec, Louisiana, Switzerland

Buon Natale – Italy

Frohe Weihnachten/Fröhliche Weihnachten – German for Merry Christmas

Mele Kalikimaka – Hawaiian, is preferred over the traditional American “Merry Christmas” in the U.S. state of Hawaii; made popular worldwide by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1950 in song

Nollaig Shona Duit – Ireland, (Irish Language), lit. “You have a happy Christmas”.

S’Rozhdestvom Kristovym! or, more commonly, simply S’Rozhdestvom! for the informal Christmas greeting, while the traditional religious greeting is Khrystos razhdayetsya! (meaning “Christ is born!”) and the traditional response is Slavite! (meaning “Let us glorify him!”)- Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic countries

Feliz Navidad – Spanish, “Happy Nativity”

Happy Kwanzaa – English greeting used before Kwanzaa.

Wesolych Swiat – Polish greeting used before Christmas (literally ‘Happy Christmas’).

Happy Hanukkah or Happy Chanukah – English

Chag Sameach – Hebrew for “Joyous festival”, used for most Jewish festivals.

Milad Majeed – Arabic for “Merry Christmas” as used in Syria and several other countries

Bayraminiz Mübarek Olsun – Turkey

Selamat Hari Raya or Salam Aidilfitri – Malay and Indonesian

Saehae Bok Mani baduseyo – Happy New Year Korean

Linksmu Šv. Kaledu ir Naujuju Metu – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Lithuanian

Gëzuar Krishtëlindjen dhe Vitin e Ri – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Albanian

Have a Happy Household Holiday!

Mike

Don’t Be Shy – Leave A Comment!
Do you have some thoughts about this?  We’d love to hear what you think. Just scroll to the bottom of this post and type in your comment. (If you are receiving this post via email or RSS, just click the title above and then scroll to the bottom of the post and type in your comment.)

Share This Article!
Do you want to share this article on your website or Blog?   To share on social media, like Facebook or Twitter, there are buttons below.

There’s More!

For past articles, click on the, “Posts” tab above.  For past videos and podcasts, mouse over the “Posts” tab above.  Look for more videos as well as more podcasts coming soon to Confidence And Joy!

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *