The pedestrian bridge, with the rainbow lights, is the The Millennium Bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, joining Eustace Street in Temple Bar to the north quays.
I eat at the Eatokyo Restaurant and one of the staff asked why we say Happy Christmas rather than Merry Christmas and why we do not refer to the day after Christmas as Boxing Day.
Christmas in Ireland is the annual festival which marks the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus and its related observances, but also incorporates some pre-Christian customs. These customs range from the traditional food and drink consumed, decorations and rituals, as well as more modern phenomena such as the Christmas day swim and annual television and radio events. The modern Irish Christmas has become more similar to that of the British and American festive period, with emphasis on gift buying and parties.
Historically, for Irish Catholics, the festive period began on 8 December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with many putting up their decorations and Christmas trees on that day, and runs through until 6 January, or Little Christmas. In modern times, The Late Late Toy Show, on the last Friday of November is viewed as the beginning of the Christmas festive period.
The greeting for “Happy Christmas” in Irish is Nollaig Shona Duit [singular] or Nollaig Shona Daoibh. The literal translation of this is “Happy Christmas to you”.
In parts of Europe, such as several regions of Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, and Ireland, 26 December is Saint Stephen’s Day, which is considered the second day of Christmas.
It is claimed that it was originally “Merry Christmas,” as in the old carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”. However, in the 17th century, Christmas was neither merry nor happy as it was illegal. Puritans in England banned the holiday as licentious, a non-biblical holdover from pagan times. Some historians attribute commentators have attributed the British preference for “happy Christmas” to the use of the expression by the royal family in annual Christmas broadcasts. King George V began the practice in his 1932 Christmas radio message, written by Rudyard Kiplin. I assume that Happy Christmas is used in Ireland as it is a translation of Nollaig Shona Duit,
I usually try to complete my Christmas shopping before the 8th of December the day that old Dubliners once referred to as ‘Culchie Shopping Day’. It was, and may still be, the day when country cousins came to Dublin to shop for Christmas. When, as a student, I worked in retail back in the 1960s it was crucial to Dublin retailers, as the traditional shopping day for people from outside the capital to journey to the city. It is also the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and a holiday very much observed by farmers.
The boom in online shopping and Black Friday means special December 8th deals are a thing of the past but there is still an influx of visitors into the city centre.
Note: Culchie is a pejorative term in Hiberno-English for someone from rural Ireland. The term usually has a pejorative meaning directed by urban Irish against rural Irish, but since the late 20th century, the term has also been reclaimed by some who are proud of their rural or small town origin. In Dublin, the term culchie is often used to describe someone from outside County Dublin, including commuter towns such as Maynooth. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the term is used to refer to persons from outside of the city proper but not necessarily outside the Greater Belfast area.
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