Christmas has a value almost in every culture. It is possible to see people having a Christmas dinner from the snowy hills of Alpines to the cold and fascinating coasts of the Baltic sea. It is interesting to learn how people from different languages say ‘Merry Christmas’. Jakub Marian, who is a Czech linguist, made an interesting Europe map. That map shows how people say ‘Merry Christmas’ in different languages.
This map shows how Europe says Merry Christmas
The colors on the map show the etymological roots of each phrase: for example, red represents Romance languages that use a Latin-based word for the event of the birth of Christ. You can see that some other languages, like the Celtic languages and Turkish, get their Christmas greetings as loanwords from the Romance languages. You can also see that up north, highlighted in green, people get their word for Christmas from the Old Norse pagan festival jól (we have this word in English as Yule!)
Here are all of the phrases listed on the map, if you need to copy and paste them:
Albanian: Gëzuar Krishtlindjet
Basque: Eguberri on
Belarusian: з Калядамі or з Божым Нараджэннем (z Kaljádami or z Bozym Naradžénnjem)
Breton: Nedeleg laouen
Bulgarian: Весела Коледа or Честито Рождество Христово (Vesela Koleda or Chestito Roždestvo Hristovo)
Catalan: Bon Nadal
Croatian: Sretan Božić
Czech: Veselé Vánoce
Danish God jul or Glædelig jul
Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest
English: Merry Christmas or Happy Christmas
Estonian: Häid jõule
Finnish: Hyvää joulua
French: Joyeux Noël
Galician: Bo Nadal
German: Fröhliche Weihnachten or Frohe Weihnachten
Greek: Καλά Χριστούγεννα (Kalá Christoúgenna)
Hungarian: Boldog karácsonyt
Icelandic: Gleðileg jól
Irish: Nollaig Shona + Dhuit (singular) or Daoibh (plural)
Italian: Buon Natale
Latvian: Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus
Lithuanian: Linksmų Kalėdų
Luxembourgish: Schéine Chrëschtdag
Macedonian: Среќен Божиќ or Христос се роди (Sreḱen Božiḱ or Hristos se rodi)
Maltese: il-Milied it-Tajjeb
Norwegian: God jul
Northern Sami: Buorit juovllat
Romanian: Crăciun fericit
Occitan: Bon Nadal
Polish: Wesołych Świąt (Bożego Narodzenia)
Portuguese: Feliz Natal
Russian: с Рождеством (Христовым) (s Roždestvóm [Hristóvym])
Scottish Gaelic: Nollaig Chridheil
Serbian: Srećan Božić or Hristos se rodi
Sardinian: Bona Pasca de Nadale
Slovak: Veselé Vianoce
Slovene: Vesel božič
Spanish: Feliz Navidad
Swedish: God jul
Turkish: Mutlu Noeller
Ukrainian: з Різдвом (Христовим) (z Rizdvóm [Hrystóvym])
Welsh: Nadolig Llawen
