5 Holiday Greetings I Only Heard After Moving to America
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- As someone who comes from a country with its own holiday greetings, I was surprised to learn that, not only are some of them absent from American life, but that America has an array of its own. Here are five of them.
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When it comes to Veteran's Day, I've always understood it as:
Veteran's Day - honors all who served
Memorial Day - honors those who died in battle
Armed Forces Day - honors those currently serving
You've got it!
And usually I only say happy any one of those to those in service or veterans, because none of them are really happy days in the end for those people. The happy in it is more of the thank you to them or their families.
Yes today that's how we see it today but it's the 11th of the 11th month the 11th hour that the guns went silent and fighting ended in WWI.
I'm from one of the few towns in America where Armed Forces Day is a major holiday, Torrance, California, just southwest of Los Angeles in LA County on the Pacific Coast. We normally have a huge parade with military units and weapons and vehicles. There's also Air Force flyovers. There are displays of military hardware throughout the entire weekend the parade is held. I don't know when this started. Perhaps because of our large numbers of service members in WWII and the large numbers of casualties, which are commemorated in our large Veteran's Memorial in front of City Hall on the main street in the center of town and smaller memorials throughout the City. Louis Zamperini (who was the subject of the book and movie "Unbroken") was from here. Also a large number of locals served in the all Nisei Japanese American WWII unit the 442nd "Go for Broke" Battalion. This was the most decorated American unit in WWII and had the heaviest casualties. They fought in Italy, France and Germany. Several locals died winning the Congressional Medal of Honor. We lost more than a few in both Iraq Wars and Afghanhistan. Lots of us have also worked in the defense area, especially aerospace.
@@brianmccarthy5557 that sounds like a Holiday!
November 11 is Veteran's Day which is for all veterans but Memorial Day is in May and that is like Remembrance Day in which we remember those who have died.
As Lawrence said, 11/11 started out as Armistice Day. Another fun fact: Mem Day started out as Decoration Day, upon which women (I suppose only women were allowed to decorate stuff at that time??) decorated the graves of Union soldiers and Confederate traitors who died in the Civil War.
@@O2life When Decoration Day began, it wasn't really a matter of only women being *allowed* to decorate the graves of the fallen -- it was the desire (and became the duty) of surviving wives, mothers, and other family members to remember their dead kinfolk and visit/decorate their graves. And there were a LOT of them -- the ~700k deaths in the Civil War would be the equivalent of losing 6 or 7 million Americans today.
Plus Armed Forces Day in April, in which we honor those who are currently serving in the military.
@@markabbott3936 We still do that on Memorial Day, decorating half a dozen famiky graves in as many towns. My husband used to do it with his grandmother in the 1950s.
@@O2life Thank you for calling them who they are: Union soldiers and Confederate traitors
Memorial day is for the dead, Veterans day is for those still alive.
Never heard gobble gobble uttered for Happy Thanksgiving, ever.
As a kid in the late 50s and early 60s it was still very common to hear Veteran's Day refereed to as Armistice Day, also Memorial Day as Decoration Day.
I'd hear "Armistice Day" from a relative who'd been born in the late 19th Century.
My mom said the same thing. She also remembers that even in East Tennessee, which remained overwhelmingly supportive of the Union, you still have people decorating for Confederate Memorial Day.
@Rob Hugh53
I must be about a decade younger than you, Rob! I remember those days, too, and I also remember Flag Day - do we still have Flag Day? I am embarrassed that I am not sure.
@@lisahinton9682 Yes, Flag Day is 14 June.
@@lisahinton9682 My husband's best friend is a Boy Scout Leader. They always do a project for Flag Day. So I think we still officially have it, but it's one of those many Federal holidays that nobody gets off. Like President's Day.
I’m a 71 year old American and I remember using “Happy Holidays” to cover both Christmas or Chanukah and New Year’s Day. Now it’s a way to avoid offending someone which is fine with this Jewish atheist.
I’m also in the habit of saying, “Thank you,” to anyone wishing me a Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukah. After all, they’re being friendly.
Yep, I say thank you also then wish them a wonderful holiday also ( or winter season)
Perfect!🐝🤗❤️
My take on "Happy Holidays," was that phrase was meant to cover both Christmas and New Year, which happened only a week later, it being quite possible that you might not see the other party in the intervening week. I don't think inclusion of non-Christian observances was part of the original intent, though it nicely fills the bill.
Irving Berlin wrote the song Happy Holiday back in ‘42. I believe Bing Crosby made it a standard in a movie of the same name.
Sheila was one of those people who think only THEIR holidays should matter. I really dislike Sheilas.
Happy Holidays to everyone but Sheila.
Never Sheila
And Karen.
I'd point out we also have the Memorial Day holiday, folks of my parents generation often referred to it as Decoration Day. As I child I never could quite get why it was Decoration Day, but its origins is the US Civil War, and it was the day people were encouraged to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers on it.
@Marty Lampner I was taught it was decorating the graves but also your house and, specifically, your porch. You wanted to show everyone your patriotism and that you had a fallen relative or friend that you were remembering.
Some Appalachian communities have Decoration Days which fall on a Sunday in early June after Memorial Day. It might have begun for Civil War dead, but now people go and put flowers on the graves of their relatives. The towns in Northeast Alabama where my parents are from still celebrate the tradition.
Ahhh, this makes sense now. My grandmother used to talk about "Decoration Day" and I never understood what she meant
My family never called it decoration day, but we followed tradition and cared flowers to all the deceased relatives, until I was 9 or 10. My late husband’s family was really into it, spending a couple of weeks on making decorations for the dearly departed. After his mon died, the tradition was dropped. I am now living too far from my relatives to decorate.
@@sophierobinson2738 Yes, my family usually shortened it to “Decoration” and my mother always felt obligated to bring flower arrangements even though we lived hundreds of miles away in Florida and visited nearly every other holiday when my grandmothers were alive.
Not only the fact Halloween and Thanksgiving both in the fall(autumn), they have another thing in common, they both have a lot of Goblin goin' on.
Thank you! That gave me a chuckle.
While I get your pun, pretty much every holiday in the U.S. anymore is an excuse to eat candy and/or cookies and/or pie, so yes there is a lot of "gobblin'" going on at Halloween, Easter, St. Valentine's Day, etc.
@@mathmannix Celebrate days with "y" in them, Par tay!
One of these days soon you'll be announcing your honorary doctorate in cultural anthropology. Thanks for studying us and making us think
Last time I was this early The US was still part of the UK
Lol
Happy Holidays is actually a wish for celebrating whatever holiday you mean. Jewish folks celebrate Hanukkah. So it covers both Christmas and Hanukkah as a greeting
😆
You must be older than dirt 🤣
@@annem7806 I could go into some scientific mumbo jumbo about how some kinds of dirt are actually less than 20 years old but due to the fact that I am old and senile I forgot what that mumbo jumbo is .
For many years I had a Holiday Tree. It was an artificial evergreen tree about 3 and a half feet tall.
January - Apple decorations
February - Valentine's Day
March - St Patrick's Day
April - Easter decorations
May, June, July - US Patriotic
August, September - varied
October - Halloween
November - Fall & Thanksgiving decorations.
December - Christmas
Some months I decorated the Living/Dining Room as well.
And in December we decorated the whole house.
I still do the same thing. After May 30's I put up a Beach tree for the summer. January I take off Christmas decorations and make it a winter tree with snowflakes and icicles.
@Marty's 4x4 Just what it sounds like. It's full of beach and ocean related ornaments. Shells, little surf boards, fish, whatever.
My friend had a neighbor who just left a broken washing machine out in their front yard at the road. Another neighbor got tired of seeing it and decorated it with halloween stuff. Then when December rolled around they decorated it for Christmas.
@@Mick_Ts_Chick If this happened in San Antonio in an area with bulky pickup happening in a few weeks that washing machine would be gone. Either someone would have dragged it away or the Bulky Pickup truck would have taken it away.
But, the neighbor decorating it for holidays was a great service to the community.
@@jacquelyns9709 We live far enough out of town that nothing gets picked up unless you pay to have it hauled off. Yeah, at least it added a bit of humor to the situation.
"Happy Remembrance Day"? Here in Canada, that would be considered incredibly crass.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone in the U.K. say Happy Remembrance Day.
Nobody ever says that though
@@alanmurdoch70 Yes. Because, as I said, it would be considered incredibly crass.
Was just thinking this. It would be like saying "Happy Memorial Day" in the States. Sure, many use the holiday to kick off the summer with a cookout or a beach trip, but actually saying "Happy Memorial Day" itself would be in bad taste.
@@ogrejd wait, why?
When I was a kid in the 50's and 60's "Happy Holidays" included everything from Thanksgiving (the beginning of the holiday season) through New Year's Day. No one took any offense then that I knew of. As the Christian majority became more educated about non-Christian holidays during that time, those special days were included with no problem. You have to be actively looking for offense in order to take offense at the term.
I know that this will eventually become a question from somebody on this list who is British, so I'll go ahead and clarify. The reason that the United States chose to take November the 11th and honor living veterans, rather than memorializing those who had died is because we already had a date for the dead. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, both the areas that were formally Confederate and the areas that were formally Union set aside days (yeah they couldn't agree on the same date for ages) to honor their war dead. So, we decided to honor the living veterans.
Ironically enough, we also have a national holiday for those actively in the military currently, called Armed Services Day. But it gets overlooked a lot. And we usually don't make the distinctions between the days. So you'll find restaurants offering discounted meals to veterans on Memorial Day, and active duty service personnel marching in Veterans Day parades, etc.
I'm not going to go into when, where, and how we eventually decided to not only unite our two Civil War Memorial Days or when it switched to honor all war dead because that would take a novel. And there are still places that maintain the distinction to this day. So what would be the point.
And, at least in the South, you are as likely to have families that serve both ham and turkey on Thanksgiving as you are to have families who just served Turkey. No idea why. I just know that anytime I go to a relative's house and there's more than 10 people there, somebody brought a HoneyBaked Ham.
I'm a Minnesotan and my family for Thanksgiving we frequently have at least 2 Turkeys. Partly because of family size & partly because the Turkeys get cooked different.
Some prefer Deep-Fried Turkey(outdoor Turkey Fryer) and others prefer Oven-Baked Turkey.
As for Christmas we generally have Ham and similarly at least 2 but that is specifically due to family size.
For those Holidays, it's generally a larger gathering of multiple branches of the family gathering together.
In my family in Ohio, we've always had both turkey and ham on Thanksgiving.
this year im going to be thankful Laurence made the choice to become the most British American we have..
welcome and glad you decided to stay! 💂🦅
I've always accepted Happy Holidays as a general greeting to include everything, since there are so many recognized holidays that happen during the month.
Ive never thougbt about the pluralization of "Happy new years" it's just the way it's been said all my life. Thanks for drawing attention to these interesting differences!
'Happy New Years' as a plural is weird, I agree. But as an Aussie I/we tend to shorten everything, so when I hear it I hear the short version of "Happy New Year's Eve" or "Happy New Year's Day" which makes it descriptive rather than plural. I'm not saying it's right though, since it is only half a sentence or phrase.
It's actually "New Year's Day". People these days tend to omit the "Day", leading to bewilderment. Why, I wonder, do some people want to make things difficult?
As a Brit, I tend to assume that when Americans say "Happy New Year's" they are referring specifically to the 2 days of New Year's Eve and New Years Day. While "Happy New Year" is what they would say to someone either just after midnight or when they first see someone in the few days after.
@@trickygoose2 Pretty much correct.
@@waynemarvin5661 Exactly. 🎉🎉 🎉
Traditionally, retail workers said "Happy Holidays" because there were many customers shopping for the holidays at this time of year. It wasn't PC, it was simply intended to be a pleasant wish that didn't take time from the next customer, because it takes a while to say, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year," or more commonly, "Happy New Year's."
Don't forget Festivus! For the Rest of Us! 💈
The holiday of holidays
0:26 happy birthday Laurence
I never took "Happy holidays!" as an attack on anything. I don't think Bing Crosby was attacking anybody when he sang it in 1942.
That's because it's not an attack on anything. It's called a victim/persecution complex
It's not an attack; it's a _response_ to an attack. People started saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" because they were afraid somebody was going to give them an earful to the effect of "my people don't celebrate Christmas, You Insensitive Clod". Jumping down their throat about it is counterproductive: it just reinforces their fear of offending people and getting chewed out.
Except it was billed and enforced when it started in the 1990's as a way to prevent folks from saying Merry Christmas. It's been successful at that. I've received many memos over the years reminding workers that we would be disciplined for saying "Merry Christmas" at work. Stop gaslighting us as if there was no memory of the short period ago when everybody said and displayed "Merry Christmas" and it wasn't verboten to have Nativity displays in public.
@@inefffable And you're accurately described as a gaslighting liar.
@@brianmccarthy5557 No, the "War on Christmas" started in the '90s. Saying "Happy Holidays"? It's been around a lot longer. Honestly, it is quite nice to be included in the seasonal greeting if you celebrate one of the myriad of holidays that are celebrated around the Solstice. Unfortunately, there's now fighting over it that completely misses the point. Honestly, it doesn't matter what it's called. It's the cultural aspects surrounding Christmas that people love. Light, love, giving, warmth and family.
I’ve never heard gobble gobble used in conversation here in Michigan. More of a movie term.
It's remberance day in Canada 🇨🇦 also.
I'm a big fan of "Merry Whatever", because it covers everything and people usually laugh.
I like it! Perfect for some of my family that gets bent out of shape if you don't use "Christmas." 😈
There's always "Happy Festivus!"
@@christinebutler7630 Yes ! 😂😂😂
@@christinebutler7630 I've sometimes taken to rushing out,
"Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Festivus for the rest of us"
I've sent out holiday cards in Dec. saying " Merry Everything " - then told my friends that was their card to cover any & all celebrations for the year , including birthdays , promotions , adopting a new pet, etc. Sort of a one- size -fits -all greeting . 😂
Memorial Day is when Americans honour our fallen heroes. Veterans Day is when we celebrate all who had the privilege of wearing a military uniform. Laurence - you arrived on November 10th - so you must not know any present/former United States Marines, since you didn't mention it! 2 things you DON'T have in the UK: first off, we spell Marines with an M, never just an m. Another thing - if you know any present/former Marines, on November 10th you had BETTER wish us a Happy Birthday. We're pretty particular about it LOL The US Marine Corps was founded - as the cadence says - 10 November 1775, My Marine Corps Came Alive. Of all branches of the US military, no other celebrates it to such an extent as Marines. Great video, love it! May institute saying Gobble Gobble...
I have a friend who was married on 10 Nov because her husband was active Marine and that's the date they chose.
I lived in U.S. all my life on both coast and i have never heard New Year's unless it's followed by day
I agree. I've only heard Happy New Year or Happy New Year's EVE. People generally only add the possessive "s" at the end when the word is followed by "Eve."
Maybe its a southern thing, but so many here say Happy New Years. A fact that drove my grammatically correct father crazy. And by default me. Also "nuclear" pronounced as nucular made him twitchy. LOL
When I was growing up people said "Happy Holidays" meaning Christmas and New Years and anything else during that time frame.
In the late 1970s I worked for a retail shoe store in suburban Detroit.
In the mall i worked in we had a lot of Jewish and Arabic clientele. I got in the habit of saying "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" out of politeness not as an attack on Christmas.
I believe you mean "Muslim". Arabic is not a religion, and there are in fact Arabic Christians.
@@IceMetalPunk I didn't know their religion.
i did not mean to imply that Arabic was a religion.
That is the whole point.
Saying Happy Holidays is as they like to say inclusive.
Though that word was not used back then.
Just trying to be polite.
I grew up and live in the Midwest, but have never heard "gobble gobble" as an alternative to Happy Thanksgiving.
Neither have I. Also from the Midwest.
I would think it's used like you would say "Ho, ho, ho" around Christmas.
Like if Die Hard was set at Thanksgiving John McClane would have said "Now I have a machinegun. Gobble, Gobble!" 😁
Same here. I grew up and live in Wisconsin and I've never heard it.
My aunt in Indianapolis and my late grandparents who lived in Michigan never
said it either.
As an American, I prefer Happy Holidays (it includes all of the year end holidays of all people all over the world and specifically, in our beautiful melting pot of cultures and religions right here in the good old USA--basically all holidays in December). If a person says you mean to say, "Merry Christmas", I then say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. If they push it further, I say, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you don't celebrate New Years Eve. LOL. I'm from Iowa, and Christian, but I believe in inclusiveness and just making everyone feel loved during the holiday season. Happy Holidays is an easy phrase to include everyone.
To me, “happy holidays” means something like “there sure are a lot of holidays this time of year. I don’t know you or what you celebrate, but there’s a good chance you celebrate *something* this time of year, so whatever it is, I hope it’s happy.” You can say it to anyone at any time from around Thanksgiving through the new year and have it be relevant. “Merry Christmas” is exactly what it says, and pertains specifically to that holiday, and you don’t really say it except then (when you say it all the time, to everyone-it *is* Christmas whether someone celebrates it or not, and those who do should wish merriness and happiness to *everyone* as just a general manifestation of goodwill. It’s a hope, not a command. “We wish you a Merry Christmas” rather than “We order you to celebrate Christmas.”
Such a great idea!Thank you
You only celebrate New Year's Eve/Day if you follow the Gregorian Callendar. 😁
We already had a holiday here in the states to honor fallen military. It was originally called Decoration Day, and was established after the Civil War. It came to include those who died in all other wars, and was officially called Memorial Day sometime in the late 60's or early 70's. Veteran's Day was originally called Armistice Day, both here and in England. The UK changed it to Remembrance Day in honor of the fallen. Since we already had a day for that, it became All Veterans Day here, and eventually just Veterans Day. In general, veterans get a little cranky when you thank them for their service on Memorial Day. It's not the day for it. As for the whole Happy Holiday being a war against Christmas, that's just a bunch of social media stupidity. People have been saying Happy Holiday/s for centuries. I do so enjoy your vlogs!
I (and a lot of Midwesterners) tend to say stores in the possessive. "I'm going to Walmart's." "I'm going to Kroger's." For some reason, this makes people angry... but it's the same idea as Happy New Year's. Instead of Kroger Grocery Store or Walmart Department Store... it's Kroger's and Walmart's.
I've always understood that November 11 wasn't when the armistice was signed, but rather when it took effect. 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
there was a gap of several hours between them. had the negotiators not been fascinated with the symbolism of 11:00 am on 11/11/1918, three thousand fewer soldiers would have died.
When I was younger, "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" Meant "HAPPY EVERYTHING FORM THANKSGIVING UNTIL THE NEW YEAR AND WHATEVER YOU CELEBRATE". People who call themselves "Christian" and attack people who say "Happy Holidays" prove that they are not followers of Christ at all. And "Happy New YearS" drives me bonkers.
I agree! It makes my blood boil and I had myself a small rant in this comment section lol🐝🤗❤️
@@deborahdanhauer8525 Good for you!
@@tonette6592 🤗
That's because it's Happy New Year's, with the apostrophe 😁
@@IceMetalPunk Yes, I left out the apostrophe, but it is then "happy New Year's ....what?"
One holiday greeting I've heard is "Season's Eatings."
"Turkey Day" also has meaning for those of us who are fans of the show Mystery Science Theater 3000! Ever since the show's origin on an independent TV station in Minneapolis in the late 80's, each Thanksgiving has been celebrated by we "MSTies" with the "Turkey Day Marathon," in which the Mystery Science crew picks several episodes to run all day long; a tradition which continued on The Comedy Channel, Comedy Central, The Sci-Fi Channel, Netflix, and now on their own fan-funded platform. "Turkey," in this case, has a double meaning, as the show's entire purpose is to mock bad movies... cinematic "turkeys," if you will.
Bonus points if one of the films shown on Turkey Day is "Riding With Death," a combination of two episodes of the short-lived 70's TV series "Gemini Man" starring Ben Murphy. Murphy, playing a hip-and-with-it 70's version of secret agent, refers to a couple of villainous goons as "turkeys," and one of the MST3K characters takes that a bit too far in a later host segment, transforming into the superhero "Turkey Volume Guessing Man," whose superpower is guessing the number of turkeys it would take to fill a given space. It's truly an absurd, geeky, funny show, and that's why we love it 😃
They've announced their Turkey Day line-up for this year! One of my favorite episodes/movies, Parts: The Clonus Horror is on the schedule.
Rock it, you turkey!
@@AspasiaB Ah, Parts! "James Arness: Ugly and Stupid. Tonight, on Biography."
Looks like a couple of my favs made the cut, as well: The Starfighters ("Refueling is a natural, beautiful process that shouldn't be mocked.") and Catalina Caper ("Little Richard, the only genuine talent in this film.") Though I'm not sure how comfortable I am with seeing Bob Dornan's face "surgically enhanced" into HD 😆
♫ Back in the funky 70's, the party didn't ever stop! The city of Pompei was doin' all right, but Vesuvius blew her top! ♫
@@JoshColletta Why did I sing that EXACT verse when you mentioned Ridin' With Death? 🤣🤣🤣
🎶 Do you remember the 50s? When Emperor Claudius di-ied? The Apostle Paul traveled to Greece...🎶
@@AspasiaB "Uh, Tom?"
"OH, NOT AGAIN!"
As an Air Force veteran, "Starfighters" is nothing like the actual military. The real military is even more shambolic. To my fellow Mysties - yo!
Happy early birthday, Lawrence.
And a joyous hogmanay to you sir...
Happy belated birthday. I know I'll miss it so I'm belating early.
lol
You forgot "Revenge of the Turkey Day" As on Thanksgiving, you start out stuffing the turkey, and by the end of the day, the turkey stuffs you.
Happy very, very belated birthday Laurence
In Canada we know it as Remembrance Day, but we don't have a "happy" greeting for it, or at least not in my neck of the woods. It's more of a sombre day.
I say "what are you doing for New Year's" as shorthand for NYE, but Happy New Year! as a greeting. But I do see lots of people using the possessive for the greeting, so that one is all over the place.
I didn’t ever think the doubling of “gobble” meant two different things where you’re saying gobble (eat) the gobble (turkey)…. I just thought (still kinda think quite frankly) that the sound a turkey makes is “gobble-gobble” (not just a singular “gobble”).
That's how we've always said it... like a little high-pitched as though we're a turkey "saying" it. Gobble, gobble! Never had anything to do with eating.
I'm A 68 year old American and I LOVE your channel. Your observations and delivery are hysterical. I'm curious if you have a larger following in the US or UK.
In US - he talked about it ~2 yrs ago.
Yeah, I would have guessed that. I'll look for that video. Thanks
At 73 years old, I remember using Happy Holidays to cover all the end of year festivals whenever we were uncertain what holidays a person we were wishing joy to celebrated. It was a very early example of the similar Ms instead of Miss or Mrs to avoid offense. The happy holidays as a war against Christmas is a more reactionary and recent opinion. I for one continue to use Happy holidays in the original way. And I'm waging no war against Christmas.
I just put "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays" on my website! The idea that 'Happy Holidays' is an attack on Christmas is rediculous!
"Happy New Years" is a big pet peeve of mine... and I'm 100% American...
Happy Holidays comes from Christmas and New Year being so close together that you are wishing them to be Happy for Both Holidays. And Merry Xmas is not a new thing it has been around for a very long time.
People who object to Happy Holidays crack me up. You are basically saying, "Happy Holy Days," which is what Christmas is.
That's hilarious, thanks!
It's the fact that corporations went out of their way to censor their employees (forbidding them from using their normal name for the holiday) that angered people. It came across as (and *was* ) a form of religious censorship.
@randlebrowne2048 the joke was on the people who didn't know the difference.
Happy early & belated birthday Laurence 🎂 🥳 🎉 And Happy Holidays 🎄
…and if nobody has said it, in the U.K. Remembrance Day is often referred to as Poppy Day. The sale of (plastic, paper,metal, woollen) poppies is a major fund raiser for the armed forces charity the Royal British Legion.
I remember my grandparents calling the November 11 holiday “Armistice Day”. In the US, poppies were worn on lapels that day only. Smaller than the ones the British typically wear. And wear for many more days. How long are poppies worn there, anyway?
Aren't the poppies related to a WW1 poem about Flanders Field, a battlefield in Belgium? There's a line in the poem about poppies, so Memorial Day in the US people ( especially older ones) wear poppies?
I don't know about the UK but in Canada people start wearing the poppy on Nov 1st.
@@Birdbike719 Every Canadian schoolchild of my generation (50's & 60's) can recite this. Today they rarely teach the last verse because it's "politically incorrect". 😞
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from falling hands we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
@@Birdbike719 I think it’s Veterans Day, not Memorial Day - at least it was when I was growing up.
It's the last Friday in October until the end of the day of the 11th. Of course many wear until the Sunday after this (if the 11th isn't a Sunday) as it is called Remembrance Sunday.
You always make me chuckle, Laurence!
When I say Happy New Years, I mean hopefully many happy years to come in the future, not just one year ❤️😊
I live in the south and sent out Thanksgiving greetings (text messages) starting with the words "gobble gobble"... lol!🙂🦃
Several people also refer to the Thanksgiving greeting as "Happy bird day!"
In my circle of "friends", the traditional "Happy Thanksgiving" is used, but the response to it is "gobble gobble".
Always enjoy your videos. Thanks for the warm wishes for Veterans day, I am a veteran WAC, one of the last, (Women's Army Corp) during Vietnam campaign but served in Europe.
Thanks for your service!😁
There's a classic Cyanide & Happiness comic about holiday greetings:
First panel is a guy saying "Merry Christmas!" to someone walking by, to which the passer-by responds: "Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Try to be a little sensitive, alright?"
To the next person coming along he says "Happy Holidays!", to which he gets the response: "Great. Thanks for the vague politically correct greeting."
Finally, he says merely "Hi!", which generates the reaction: ""What the hell is *that* supposed to mean?!
Some days it just don't pay to be friendly...
I just say Happy Festivus! Before that, I said Season's Greetings! Never had anybody complain, but if they did, I would have said, "I withdraw my greeting, piss off". As an atheist, I know the latter would be more upsetting.
I say whatever I want and refuse to comply to "Political Correctness". You have a problem with that too bad for you, being a f***ing oversensitive wussbag baby!
My sister was briefly vegetarian as a teen. At Thanksgiving she asked our father “Doesn’t it bother you that thing was alive?” “I’d rather it be dead!” as he started to carve it. 😂
Happy days, Laurence.
Holiday greetings to you and your wife. Watched you forever. Always fun and informative. Thank you.
when i was a kid it was referred to as armistice day. i still call it that because it took me years to learn how to pronounce it AND spell it!
A Happy and Merry Everything to you and yours, Laurence!
Turkey Day reminds me of a story from my high school days in southern California. I took German as a second language, and when we were introduced to the German words for a turkey, we had a little fun with them. In German, a turkey is a Truthahn (male) or Truthenne (female). But there are alternate words, Puter (male) and Pute (female, pronounced poo-tuh). We often used mixed German and English when we didn't know specific words, which was referred to as "Deutschlish", and when we got to that point we started calling Thanksgiving Pute Day. The funny part is that southern California has a very sizeable Spanish speaking community, and in New World Spanish, there's a slang word for a woman of extremely questionable virtue that sounds very much like Pute. So imagine if you will the looks we got from Spanish speaking students who overheard us saying "So what are you doing on Pute Day?" 😂
In my experience, Happy Holidays is inclusive of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, and was used long before celebrating other religious alternatives to Christmas became mainstream. The idea your Bible-thumper had about it being an "attack" on Christmas is also a recent phenomenon. Before that, the self-righteous set used to complain that Christmas was shortened to Xmas to remove Christianity from it, which was also utter nonsense. The "X" comes from Χριστός (Christós) the Greek word that became Christ in English. It's used because it fits easily on greeting cards and other places where the full spelling may be too long.
“Puta” is not slang for the “male organ.” “Puta” is Spanish for “whore.”
To your last point, in addition to what you wrote, the tradition of using the initial lettres of names to identify holy people depicted in Christian icons dates back to long before people exchanged cards to celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord.
As far as bilingual greetings, a city library had a “Feliz Ano Nuevo”, without the tilda on the n. My then Chicana girlfriend thought it was funny, as it meant “Happy New As@hole”
Veteran's Day used to be called Armistice Day, and in 1940 there was a massive blizzard that came through the Midwest. 150 people died in that blizzard (49 of them in my state of Minnesota, and 50 of them on the Great Lakes), caught outside in shirtsleeves, as it was an unusually warm day before temperatures plummeted and snow began to fall. My mom (RIP) was paralyzed in bed at the time from polio, and she recalled being "snowed on" while my grandpa frantically put up the storm windows on the house, and grandma putting up a makeshift tent over mom to keep the snow off of her.
Actually wishing somebody a Happy New Year isn’t just about shortening the phrase. It’s also a wish that their entire year ahead is a happy one.
You still make me giggle!!!
I assure you, there will be more than just one year coming in the future. I'd never considered it before, but if you wish someone "Happy New Years", you're covered in perpetuity. I never have to say it to them ever again!
Happy Turkey day, Merry Christmas, and a happy new years~ ( although i only use turkey day online, not in real life) never heard of gobble gobble outside of when a neighbor was being funny once years ago
Happy birthday for next week
"Happy New Years" (plural) is just a shortcut for "Happy News Eve AND Happy New Years Day" because both days have their own different characteristics. Basically one is for celebrating and the other is for... sobering up. 😆🤣
🙂 Happy New Years Laurence.
Happy festivus. Laurance
Your interpretation of 'gobble gobble' is much more clever than the actual meaning. When turkeys call they usually make the gobble sound 2 - 3 times in a row. I've never heard anyone say 'gobble gobble' as a Thanksgiving Day greeting. That must be a midwestern thing.
Lawrence, you should do a video on American colloquialisms!
My favorite is "Piss up a rope"- always liked that one.
I think I say gobble, gobble in the time before Thanksgiving. ALOT.
I recall from school in England (many decades ago) that we celebrated Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day as separate events.
Remembrance Day was for all those who died in service to country, and Armistice Day for WW1 specifically.
I thought gobble gobble was "only" the sound that the turkey made, I never once thought about it they way he described...not sure I like this new revelation any more than he does lol
In 1968, when I was just turned 12 and the Vietnam War was at its height, I had the honor of being in the Boy Scout Color Guard at the 50th Commeration of what was stiil often called Armistice Day at the Los Angeles Exposition Park Rose Garden. The event was to celebrate the still numerous survivors of the famous Rainbow Division which played a key part in the victory under the divisional General Douglas MacArthur. They are all dead now and the holiday serves for all US veterans, but we should still remember them in particular.
Lawrence, you are still hilarious!! But I actually do get the confusion🤣🤪😂
I love your wit!❤❤❤
I don't recall hearing "gobble, gobble" until the movie came out in the mid 1980s.
Happy birthday Lawrence!! Happy Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
If you’ve ever watched the cartoon The Chalkzone, they have a song in their holiday episode, When Santas Collide, which says “Merry Chris-Hanukkah-mas and a Happy Rama-Kwanza-Dan. Everyone in the Chalkzone sings this before going off to celebrate their own holiday.
I got tired of turkey when I was in the hospital for over 2 months with STAPHYLOCOCCUS on a replaced aortic valve. Happy Holidays includes Chriskwanzhanukkah!
Great video. I say Happy Turkey Day and so do a lot of folks here in Western Pennsylvania. It's Merry Christmas and I don't care who gets offended.
Happy belated birthday!
Just found your channel, and I love it. Keep up the great work!
I use, and have frequently heard use, "Happy Fireworks Day" in place of "Happy 4th" or "Happy Independence Day".
"Happy Holidays" has been used as a greeting since the 1860s, and (according to what my church told me in Sunday school 100 years later) was referring partly to all the holidays celebrated in the winter season, like advent and various saints days.
I use Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year- not Years,.
Love thanksgiving , means Macy's Day parade , football and lots of goodies and a very big dinner!!!!!!! Gobble Gobble. time to pig out.
From my experience with the term, happy holidays is mostly exclusive from Thanksgiving to new years and everything in between; rarely used for Thanksgiving though. For the most part, it's used because there is so many holidays in December with Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and new years all there. Most people however use it to mean "merry Christmas and a happy new years."
A lot of people have come to the conclusion that the term is new and is somehow an attack on Christmas and taking away Christ out of their pagan holiday, some people have the same problem with the term X-mas. However, it can be seen with use all the way back to the 40's like in Andy Williams song "happy holidays" and most people aren't even using it for inclusive reasons or anti-christianity, but mostly just because it's a mouthful to say all the holidays and hard to remember which one is next.
Christians seem to become offended very easily. What a sad world it is when somebody gets upset when you wish them Happy Holidays. It borders on the ridiculous!
@@californiahiker9616 that's a minority of Christians. I personally have never ran into anybody that was offended by any substitute term.
@@californiahiker9616 Such conduct does seem to reflect badly on what a faith on Christ is supposed to be. It's supposed to endure whether the world speaks well of it, speaks ill of it, or is indifferent to it. Otherwise why wouldn't we call it Worldmas?
@@honolulublues5548 If a "minority" it's an awful loud, activist "minority."
@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648 people in a minority often speak the loudest.
I find it weird that anyone would say "Happy Remembrance Day", as it's a solemn occasion in Canada for remembering the men and women who died for our freedoms. It's akin to wishing someone a happy funeral attendance.., it's done out of respect and veterans have never been too happy to remember the tragedies that faced at war.
But I digress. Happy Birthday Lawrence
Happy Birthday Laurence!🎈🎆✨🎉🎊🎀🎁🎵🎂🍨🍷🍺
I've never quite understood why some of my fellow Americans freak out if you don't say Merry Christmas.🤔 As an atheist I'm just as happy hearing someone say Merry Christmas as Happy Holidays. It's certainly better than someone saying may all your days dreary and filled with hopelessness 🤷
It has more to do with corporations *ordering* their employees *not* to use their preferred name for the religious holiday. It came across as an attempt at religious suppression.
Most of the same people who "freak out" over it wouldn't have a problem with someone of a different religion wishing them happiness on their specific holiday. We'd just return the favor by wishing them the same on *ours* !
In short, no one like to be censored.
As Lawrence had his fun rememberance, I kept having, "remember, remember the eleventh of November" pop in my head on repeat...🤣
When it comes to Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings, I tend to allow other people to lead on how they wish to receive the greeting. If they say Merry Christmas, then I will return the same greeting. I work in a retail store, and I have not gotten in trouble for doing it this way. If they do not say anything, I will usually say Happy Holidays.
I use Merry Christmas when I'm with others that I know are Christian (myself included), but if it's to a wider audience where I'm uncertain and a variety of different faiths then I just wish them a nice holiday break. Just a little note, my mind immediately went back to American Dad when Stan gets all indignant about it.
Did you know, Lawrence, that you moved to the States on the Marine Corps Birthday? USMC born 11/10/1775 in the Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Happy birthday early!! 🎉