{"id":23249,"date":"2015-12-03T02:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=23249"},"modified":"2015-10-08T09:46:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T15:46:15","slug":"what-the-phrase-merry-christmas-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/what-the-phrase-merry-christmas-means\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Phrase Merry Christmas Means"},"content":{"rendered":"

It falls from our lips without much thought: \u201cMerry Christmas<\/a>!\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n

But what is it we are really saying?<\/p>\n

In an informal survey conducted recently more than 94 percent of Americans asked thought that the word \u201cmerry\u201d meant \u201cjolly\u201d. <\/p>\n

Taken in context, many around the world do indeed celebrate a \u201cjolly\u201d Christmas<\/a> these days. But that contemporary interpretation is not exactly the traditional definition of the word \u201cmerry\u201d. <\/p>\n

In old England where the phrase originates the word \u2018merry\u2019 means pleasant or joyous. Alternatively, the word ‘merry’ also means to drink with great fervor. In some context, it is not a compliment to be described as merry or having made merry. This is one reason why even today in the U.K. the phrase “Happy Christmas” is more preferred over “Merry Christmas”. <\/p>\n

In America there is no association with the phrase “Merry Christmas” with any excessive or indulgent behavior. It is intended solely as a greeting. <\/p>\n

To wish one a \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d means to wish them well in celebrating a season of festivity or rejoicing. <\/p>\n

The 16th century carol (English, of course) \u201cGod Rest You Merry, Gentlemen\u201d demonstrates the true meaning of the word \u2018merry\u2019 and, ironically, highlights how the word itself is oft times misinterpreted. <\/p>\n

The comma after the word \u2018merry\u2019 in \u201cGod Rest You Merry, Gentleman\u201d separates \u2018merry\u2019 from the noun \u201cgentlemen\u201d, thus not making it an adjective to describe those gentlemen. It is instead a command to be joyous, such as \u201cGod Keep You Joyous, Gentlemen\u201d. <\/p>\n

So when we say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d we are, in fact, wishing one a joyous Christmas<\/a> season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It falls from our lips without much thought: \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d But what is it we are really saying? In an informal survey conducted recently more than 94 percent of Americans asked thought that the word \u201cmerry\u201d meant \u201cjolly\u201d. Taken in context, many around the world do indeed celebrate a \u201cjolly\u201d Christmas these days. But that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":153,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,5],"tags":[153],"class_list":["post-23249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-features","category-christmas-traditions","tag-merry-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}