{"id":644,"date":"2010-06-22T03:57:29","date_gmt":"2010-06-22T03:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/?p=644"},"modified":"2014-08-12T03:59:15","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T03:59:15","slug":"theres-something-about-merry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/theres-something-about-merry\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s Something About Merry"},"content":{"rendered":"

It falls from our lips without much thought: \u201cMerry Christmas<\/a>!\u201d. But what is it we are really saying?<\/p>\n

In an informal survey conducted recently more than 84 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 \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d originates, the word \u2018merry\u2019 means pleasant or joyous. To wish one a \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d meant to wish them well in celebrating a season of festivity or rejoicing. In no way does it suggest the jockularity, hi-jinks, frivolity or sometimes raucous nature of the word \u201cjolly\u201d.<\/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 84 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":654,"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":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-history","category-christmas-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","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=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}