Why we say "merry" Christmas instead of "happy"

Publish Date
Thursday, 1 December 2016, 11:33AM

You may have noticed that we say, "Happy Birthday!", "Happy New Year!" and "Happy Easter!", but when it comes to Christmas we instead say "Merry Christmas!"

There's good reason why we use the "merry", and it all comes down to the history of the word. 

In a YouTube video by Mental Floss, they explain that 'happy' is an emotional state, whereas 'merry' implies specific sorts of merry-making behaviours. 

The clip above goes on to explain the origin in full, and is worth a watch above. 

And with that we hope you have a very merry Christmas!

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