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. In the United States, holidays with greetings include Christmas, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Ramadan (which falls at a different time each year; every year it goes back a month) and recently, Kwanzaa. Some greetings are more prevalent than others, depending on the cultural and religious status of any given area.
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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. In the United States, holidays with greetings include Christmas, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Ramadan (which falls at a different time each year; every year it goes back a month) and recently, Kwanzaa. 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. In the United States, 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 American holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Some controversy has arisen regarding the phrase "Happy Holidays" as an alleged attempt to diminish Christmas although its use promotes other holidays commonly celebrated in the United States.
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.
The phrase is often preferred 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. 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, composed 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 well as "Merry Christmas".
- 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. This is not simply to be politically correct but simply to include all winter holidays that are celebrated in relation to Christmas in the Spanish-speaking world.
