Holiday Vernacular
"VERNACULAR": the form of a language commonly spoken by the people of a particular region or by a particular group, esp. when it is different from the standard language
hold on to that thought.... I'll come back to it shortly.
Playing on the radio.
Sung at church.
Piping in over stores' speaker systems.
Playing on stereo systems of friends and family as we attend holiday festivities.
(As previously mentioned here on MattChat, I LOVE Christmas music, so I am all stoked about the tunes I'm gonna hear for the next 7 weeks.)
Back to "vernacular".....
With the playing of all this Christmas music, we all start speaking (or singing) a special vernacular that only comes around this type of year.
"HOLIDAY VERNACULAR": a select group of words added to everyday, regular vocabulary for use from mid-November thru early January by the collective group of individuals who really love the Christmas season
(definition by yours truly)
Some examples of what I am talking about:
Noel: the French word for "Christmas", so it only makes sense that it comes out around Christmas time
Yule / Yuletide: an old Germanic festival that ended up more or less becoming the same as Christmas
Emmanuel (Immanuel): "God With Us"; what Christmas is all about.... God taking on human flesh in the form of a helpless baby in a Bethlehem stable
Gloria (more like "glor or or or or or oria"): a word probably most popular because of the carol "Angels We Have Heard on High" (ONE OF MY FAVORITES); it means "glory" or "halo"
In Excelsis Deo: "God in the Highest"; often paired with "gloria" (sorry.... "glor or or or or or oria")
Advent: means "arrival" or "birth"
Nativity: that representation of the Bethlehem stable that your gramma always had sitting on her coffee table; most people's nativity contains the Wise Men, which is wrong; they didn't visit Jesus until many months later
Magi: the 3 Wise Men; according to tradition (not the Bible), their names were Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar; I love these guys!!
Frankincense: one of the gifts brought by the Magi; it's a spice
Myrrh: ditto Frankincense
Tidings: "news"
Ornaments: no definition needed, right?
Trimmings: all the stuff used to decorate the Christmas tree; lights, tinsel, garland, ornaments, streamers, beads, strings of popcorn, keychains, etc.
Pretty amazing, huh? Think about it.... how seldom do you hear these words outside of the mid-November to early January window?
Very seldom, eh?
They truly are part of a special language. The language of Christmas.
Out for now.....
Matt
