BONNE ANNEBLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDADRFELIZ NATAL

It looks like it’s starting off in French with ‘Bonne anne…’ but then segues into Welsh: ‘Blwyddyn newydd dda’. I don’t know where the extra ‘dr’ comes from, but it ends with ‘Feliz natal’ which I’m guessing is Spanish or Italian.

Karyn

This is a traditional religious greeting for a subset of the Jewish holidays, and it’s only used half in jest for “happy holidays.”

As it happens, there are Hebrew words for “Christmas” and “New Years.” The former is chag hamolad, literally, “holiday of the birth.” So “Merry Christmas” is chag molad samei’ach, “happy holiday of birth.”

More interesting is “Happy New Year,” because the modern Hebrew word for the civic new year is silvester. The word is taken (though most Hebrew speakers don’t know it) from Pope Saint Sylvester I, whom the Catholic Church pairs with December 31. So while “Happy New Year” can be shanah tovah (“good year”), the holiday itself is called silvester. And although it’s a very minor holiday in Israel (January 1 is a work day), kids often have a party for the new year, which they call ahfteir silvester, combining the English “after” and the Catholic “sylvester” into a uniquely Hebrew expression.

Chag molad samei’ach.

-Joel