Re: OT: Christmas/Holidays

Mark J. Reed wrote:
> On 12/26/05, *Isaac Penzev* <isaacp@ukr.net <mailto:isaacp@...>> wrote:
>
>      > Merry Christmas (for the remaining 10.5 days of Christmas  :)
>      > and Happy Hannukah and, of course, a Happy New Year
>
>     more exactly, חֲנֻכָּה - ḥănukkā, that may be rendered practicly as smth
>     like Chanukah or Hanukkah or half a dozen other ways, but only with
>     one N.
>     Thank you for the greetings, and the same to you!
>
>
> And a Happy Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, 2nd night of Hanukkah, 2nd day of
> Chirstmas, 6th day of (Northern Hemisphere) Winter (according to Western
> Astronomy), 12th day before Old-Style Eastern Orthodox Christmas, day
> after Newtonmas, or whatever else you may be celebrating. :)
I was of the understanding that starting Winter on the solstice was an
American thing, and that Europe (or at the very least the British and
Irish) considered it to begin at least at the start of December, if not
earlier---certainly in Australia, summer is considered to start on the
first of December and last to the last of Feburary (and the simple
inverse in the northern hemisphere: if anyone asked I would say the 3rd
of December was winter in America). After all, is not an old-fashioned
name for the summer solstice "Midsummer's day"?

(BTW: Today is actually the 27th of December---though it is the Boxing
Day public holiday ;)

--
Tristan.

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