Pondering about Holiday vernacular.
Posted by johnG on 21st December , 2008Pondering about Holiday vernacular.
What is all this fuss about Christmas? Well, people say “Oh, you can’t say Christmas because it is offensive to other religions…” blah, blah, blah.
The politically correct crowd says “Happy Holidays.” That seems to cover it all, eh?
Well I did a bit of research this morning and found this list:
- Happy Holidays – Canada, United States
- Kales yortes” or “Kala Christouyenna” – Greek for Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas
- Buon Natale – Italian for Happy Christmas
- Feliz Natal – Portuguese for Happy Christmas
- Feliz Navidad – Castilian lit. “Happy Nativity”
- Crăciun Fericit! Romanian for Merry Christmas
- Season’s Greetings – United Kingdom Christmas cards, not usually spoken
- Happy Christmas – United Kingdom
- Merry Xmas – Written English (often informal), referencing the Greek word Χριστος, 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
- Prettige Kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar – Dutch
- Geseënde Kersfees en ‘n voorspoedige nuwe jaar – Blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year – Afrikaans speaking South Africans
- Glædelig jul – Danish
- Joyous Yule – Usually a Wiccan or Neopagan greeting for the Winter solstice
- Joyeux Noël – France, French Canada, Louisiana, Switzerland
- Joyeuses Fêtes – French for Happy Holidays used in French Canada
- 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), Gaeilge, lit. “You have a happy Christmas”.
- Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda – Wales (by Welsh speakers), “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”
- S’Rozhdestvom Kristovym! (С Рождеством Христовым!) or, more commonly, simply S Rozhdestvom! for the informal Christmas greeting, while the traditional religious greeting is Khrystos razhdayetsya! (Христос рождается, meaning “Christ is born!”) and the traditional response is Slavite! (Cлавите!, meaning “Let us glorify him!”). – Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholic countries
- Happy Kwanzaa – English greeting used before Kwanzaa.
- Wesołych Świąt – Polish greeting used before Christmas (literally ‘Happy Holidays’).
- Habari Gani – Swahili for “What’s the news?” is the daily greeting for each of the seven days of Kwanzaa.
- Happy Hanukkah or Happy Chanukah – English
- Chag Sameach – Hebrew for “Joyous festival”, used for most Jewish festivals.
- Gut Yontiff – Yiddish for “good holiday” used for non festival holidays.
- L’Shanah Tovah – Hebrew, Lit. “a good year”. Common greeting during Rosh Hashanah and Days of Awe. It is derived from L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem, lit. “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year”.
- Have an easy fast – the solemn greeting for Yom Kippur.
- Happy New Year – often yelled at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.
- It’s a Festivus for the rest of us! – often yelled enthusiastically to explain the meaning of the holiday Festivus
- Milad Majeed – Arabic for “Merry Christmas” as used in Syria and several other countries
- Kul ‘am wa enta bi-khair – Arabic for “May every year find you in good health”
- Taqabbala Allahu minna wa minkum. – “May God accept from us, and from you.”
- ‘Īd mubārak – “Blessed Eid” is used to greet at the end of Ramadan on Eid ul-Fitr
- ‘Īd sa‘īd – “Happy Eid”
- Bayramınız Mübarek Olsun – Turkey – “(is a celebration of Ramadan (religious holiday)”
- Selamat Hari Raya or Salam Aidilfitri – Malay and Indonesia
- Rite Catholic countries – Christos Voskresse! (Христос возкресе) replied to with Vo istina voskresse! (Во истина Воскресе!) – Bulgarian
- Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon!! Filipino, greeting for “merry Christmas and Happy New Year”
- Среќна Нова Година и Божиќни празници, Srekna Nova Godina i Bozikni praznici – Macedonian (Makedonski)
- Boldog karácsonyt/Kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket : Merry Christmas/Pleasant Christmas Holidays in Hungarian, Kellemes húsvéti ünnepeket: Pleasant Easter Holidays– in Hungarian( Magyar)
- Gong Xi Fa Tsai, Xin Nian Kuai Le –in (Mandarin), translation: “We wish upon you good fortunes, and may your heart’s desires be satisfied”.
Now, as a mathematician I am fond of “X”mas because your can replace whatever rhetoric you wish with the lookup table above and replace; Normal, logical and efficient.
Further, than I thought well, isn’t it really a mechanism to generate consumption increasing the “C” component in Gross Domestic Product?
Hmmm, GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports −imports), or,
GDP = C + I + G + (X-M).
That is it!
Therefore, the new name of Christmas will now be:
GDPMas or (rewritten)
C + I + G + X-Mas
Or
CIGXMas
Merry CIGXMas everyone!
Your mathematician Mr. Pretto…