Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

en-proper noun

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (plural Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.wav

In the yards of the houses, the pink flamingos were eclipsed by huge plastic Santa Clauses and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers, their red noses tinting the shadows on the snow rose red, and on the roof ridges of every other house, Santa Claus and his sleigh had landed weeks earlier.

1989, Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, Buffalo Afternoon, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 513:

The only buildings on the street across from the Yellow Panda were an abandoned warehouse and a lonely souvenir stand, also closed until tourist season, its carved Smokey the Bears and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers looking like lost Christmas decorations in the rain.

1997, Roger L[ichtenberg] Simon, The Lost Coast, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 194:

Window cling-ons are the same kind you see at Christmas time, with cute Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers and Frosty the Snow Mans on them.

2003, Tiffany Lambert, Restaurant Promotion and Publicity: For Just a Few Dollars a Day, Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., →ISBN, page 98:

Light posts, storefronts and other businesses were lined with garlands of silver, gold, green and red; as well as the occasional Santa Claus and more than a few Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers.

2008, William Pepper, In the St. Nick of Time, Carnival of Glee Creations, →ISBN, page 10:

These days, you see more of those giant inflatable Frosty the Snowmen and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers.

2014, Greg Laurie, Red: The Color of Christmas, 15 Favorite Christmas Messages, Allen David Books, →ISBN, page 307:

Good job you don’t have kids, mate. You’d go mad this time of year with all the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeers going on.

2019, Alison Roberts, Single Dad in Her Stocking, Harlequin, →ISBN:

A legendary reindeer with a nose that glows red, the subject of a comic Christmas song; often added among Santa Claus's reindeer as the leading one.

ルドルフ赤鼻のトナカイ

ルドルフあかはなのトナカイ


Mrs. Claus

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Mrs. Claus.wav

A relatively new gala, the Celebrate Santa Convention boasts a sea of Santas, Mrs. Clauses, elves, and reindeers, […]

2011, Kristin Luna, Tennessee Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff, Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, →ISBN, page 167:

In normal years, he runs a roving school for Santas and Mmes. Claus and supplies a workforce of bearded men to malls and corporate events around the country. […] He led a neighborhood tree-lighting in a blue surgical mask with a Mrs. Claus friend near his apartment in Upper Manhattan, and a few buddies volunteered for a socially distanced Christmas parade.

2020 December 25, Emma Green, “The Christmas Crisis”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 2020-12-25:

“Why do I get the feeling that ‘we’ includes me?” I said warily. “Of course it includes you. You’re Mrs. Claus.” She reconsidered. “One of the Mrs. Clauses, at any rate. I signed you up for two shifts and some cookies. Surely that’s not too much to ask?”

2021, Liz Ireland, Mrs. Claus and the Halloween Homicide, Kensington Books, →ISBN:

In 1937, a Michigan school was established in Midland, and it has been training Santas and Mrs. Clauses for eighty-five years.

2022, Bill Loomis, Christmas in Detroit, Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, →ISBN, page 67:


vernal

en-adj

vernal (comparative more vernal, superlative most vernal)

more vernal (comparative)
most vernal (superlative)

PIE word
 *wósr̥
From Latin vernālis (“(rare) of or pertaining to spring; vernal”), from vērnus (“of or pertaining to spring; vernal”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship). Vērnus is derived from vēr (“season of spring”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”)) + -nus (suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Old French vernal (modern French vernal), Italian vernale (“pertaining to spring; vernal”), Occitan vernal, Portuguese vernal (“pertaining to spring; vernal”), Spanish vernal (“pertaining to spring; vernal”).

cog

When after the long vernal day of life, / Enamour'd more, as more remembrance ſwells / With many a proof of recollected love, / Together down they [the seasons] ſink in ſocial ſleep; [...]

a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 44, lines 1168–1171:

Ah me! too ſwiftly fleets our vernal bloom! / Loſt to our wonted friendſhip, loſt to joy! / Soon may thy breaſt the cordial wiſh reſume, / Ere wintry doubt its tender warmth deſtroy.

1764, William Shenstone, “Elegy XIII. To a Friend, on Some Slight Occasion Estranged from Him.”, in The Works in Verse and Prose, of William Shenstone, Esq; Most of which Were Never before Printed. In Two Volumes. […], volume I, London: Printed for R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 45:

Art thou a child of tears, / Cradled in care and woe? / And seems it hard thy vernal years / Few vernal joys can shew?

1827, [John Keble], “The Circumcision of Christ”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 47:

(figuratively) Having characteristics like spring; fresh, young, youthful.

свеж

having characteristics like spring — see also fresh, youthful


jubilee

en-noun

jubilee (countable and uncountable, plural jubilees)

/ˌd͡ʒuːbɪˈliː/

senses 3.3 and 3.4 when spelled jubile, obsolete

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

From Late Middle English jubile [and other forms], from Middle French jubile, from Old French jubilee, jubileus (modern French jubilé), from Late Latin iūbilaeus (adjective, also treated as a noun), from Ancient Greek ἰωβηλαῖος (iōbēlaîos, “of a jubilee”), from ἰώβηλος (iṓbēlos, “jubilee”) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Ἰώβηλος (Iṓbēlos) is derived from Hebrew יוֹבֵל (yōḇēl, “ram, trumpet made from a ram’s horn; jubilee”) (because a ram’s horn trumpet was originally used to proclaim the event; see Leviticus 25:9), influenced by Latin iūbilum (“a cry, a shout”) and iūbilō (“to cheer, shout or sing joyfully”). Cognate with Italian giubileo, Spanish jubileo.

der

(Roman Catholicism) A special year (originally held every hundred years, then at more frequent intervals, and now declarable by the Pope at any time and also for periods less than a year) in which plenary indulgences and remission from sin can be granted upon making a pilgrimage to Rome or other designated churches.

禧年

(Roman Catholicism) special year in which plenary indulgences and remission from sin can be granted upon making a pilgrimage

[T]hough it be in the povver of the vveakeſt arme to take avvay life, it is not in the ſtrongeſt to deprive us of death: […] the firſt day of our Jubilee is death; the Devill hath therefore failed of his deſires; vvee are happier vvith death than vve ſhould have been vvithout it: there is no miſery but in himſelfe vvhere there is no end of miſery: […]

1642, Tho[mas] Browne, “The First Part”, in Religio Medici. […], 4th edition, London: […] E. Cotes for Andrew Crook […], published 1656, →OCLC, section 44, page 94:

"Hurrah! hurrah! we bring the Jubilee! / Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that makes you free!" / So we sung the chorus from Atlanta to the sea, / While we were marching through Georgia.

1865 (date written), [Henry Clay Work], “Marching through Georgia”, in Beadle’s Dime Song Book […], number 17, New York, N.Y.: Beadle and Company, […], published 1866, →OCLC, page 57:

The chains of that great power we broke; / The burdened captives were set free, / For Lincoln held the pen, whose stroke / Proclaimed, the year of jubilee.

1890, L[evi] C. McKinstry, “[Lincoln’s White Name]”, in A Poetic Offering to John Greenleaf Whittier […], Haverhill, Mass.: L. C. McKinstry, →OCLC, page 101:

(countable) A time for release or restitution.

But you firſt ſhall taſte / The bounty of our Court, with royall Preſents / Both to the Duke your maſter, and the Princeſſe; / It done, prepare we for this great ſolemnity, / Of Hymeneall Iubilies.

1634, Thomas Heywood, “A Pleasant Comedy, Called A Mayden-head Well Lost. […]”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood […], volume IV, London: John Pearson […], published 1874, →OCLC, Act III, page 137:

(countable) A time of celebration or rejoicing.


Anno Domini

Borrowed from Medieval Latin annō Dominī (“in the year of the Lord”) from the word annō (“in the year”) the ablative of annus (“year”) + Dominī (“of the Lord”) the genitive of Dominus (“the Lord”).

bor

In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620.

1620, Mayflower Compact, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

The scene was Mr. Cruncher’s private lodging in Hanging-sword-alley, Whitefriars: the time, half-past seven of the clock on a windy March morning, Anno Domini seventeen hundred and eighty.

1859, Charles Dickens, “Book the Second”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

In the year of our Lord (often abbreviated A.D. or AD).

après Jésus-Christ (abbr. après JC, ap. J.-C., ap. JC)

después de Jesucristo (abbr. d. de J.C.)


year of our Lord

en-noun

year of our Lord (plural years of our Lord)

AC

antonym(s) of “of the Common/Christian Era”

And for the continuing and preſerving the Calendar or Method of Reckoning, and computing the Days of the Year in the ſame regular Courſe, as near as may be, in all Times coming; be it further enacted by the Authority aforeſaid, That the ſeveral Years of our Lord, One thouſand eight hundred, One thouſand nine hundred, Two thouſand one hundred, Two thouſand two hundred, Two thouſand three hundred, or any other Hundredth Years of our Lord, which ſhall happen in Time to come, except only every Fourth hundredth Year of our Lord, whereof the Year of our Lord Two thouſand ſhall be the Firſt, ſhall not be eſteemed or taken to be Biſſextile or Leap Years, but ſhall be taken to be common Years, conſiſting of Three hundred and ſixty five Days, and no more; and that the Years of our Lord, Two thouſand eight hundred, and every other Fourth hundredth Year of our Lord, from the ſaid Year of our Lord Two Thouſand incluſive, and alſo all other Years of our Lord, which by the preſent Supputation are eſteemed to be Biſſextile, or Leap Years, ſhall for the future, and in all Times to come be eſteemed and taken to be Biſſextile or Leap Years, conſiſting of Three hundred and ſixty ſix Days, in the ſame Sort and Manner as is now uſed with reſpect to every Fourth Year of our Lord.

1751, “An Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for correcting the Calendar now in Use”, in Anno Regni Georgii II. Regis Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ, & Hiberniæ, Vicesimo-Quarto. […], Edinburgh: […] the Assigns of Robert Freebairn […], pages 7–8:

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, / I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the National Archives and Records Administration to be affixed. / DONE at the City of Washington this 18th day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two.

1992, certification of the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, (image):

Born in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty on September 9, Jeremy had many wonderful friends and family, which sit here with us today.

2007, Tom Thunderhorse, Charlie Goodbear, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 168:

(Christianity) A year of the Common Era/Christian Era; anno Domini; numbered from the once estimated first year for the birth of Jesus Christ.


springtime

springtime (countable and uncountable, plural springtimes)

Georgian and Regency houses cluster picturesquely around the sloping village green, which in springtime is carpeted with daffodils.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 194, about Gainford, Co. Durham:

The season of spring, between winter and summer.


spring break

spring break (countable and uncountable, plural spring breaks)

“We are on the edge of an AI surge that will make the dotcom boom look like spring break,” says Boris Feldman, co-head of Freshfield's global tech practice, who advises multiple “magnificent seven” tech companies.

2024 July 20, Tabby Kinder, George Hammond, Hannah Murphy, Alex Rogers, quoting Boris Feldman, “Has Silicon Valley gone Maga?”, in FT Weekend, Big Read, page 6:

A time of vacation from school that occurs during the spring.


Cinco de Mayo

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Cinco de Mayo.wav

Borrowed from Spanish cinco de mayo (“fifth of May”).

A national celebration in Mexico, commemorating the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza over the French expeditionary forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, also celebrated widely by immigrants living in the United States.


Bastille Day

The French national holiday celebrated on 14 July each year. It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French "nation".


Yom Kippur

/ˌjɒm kɪˈpʊə/

/ˌjəʊm kɪˈpʊə/

/ˌjəʊm ˈkɪpə/

/ˌjɔm kɪˈpʊɹ/

/ˌjɑm kɪˈpʊɹ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Yom Kippur.wav

From Hebrew יוֹם כִּיפּוּר (yom kipúr, literally “Day of Atonement”).

bor

יוֹם כִּיפּוּר

(Judaism) A particular Jewish holiday, the day of atonement, falling on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei.


Diwali

Borrowed from Hindi दिवाली (divālī), from Sanskrit दीपावलि (dīpāvali, literally “row of lights”), from दीप (dīpa, “light”) + आवलि (āvali, “series, line, row”). Doublet of Deepavali.

der

(Hinduism) An annual festival of light, observed during several days in October and November.

Deepawali

more often used in Malaysia and Singapore

Kali Puja

more often used in Bangladesh, Bengal, and Odisha


Holy Saturday

The Saturday immediately after Good Friday and before Easter.

Stille Zaterdag

the Saturday immediately after Good Friday


pace egg

A hard-boiled coloured egg traditionally made at Easter, often given to relatives and friends as a token of goodwill. It was traditional to jarp with the eggs before eating them.

County Durham website dedicated to preservation of dialect terms


pysanka

Borrowed from Ukrainian пи́санка (pýsanka), from писа́ти (pysáty, “to write”), referring to writing on an egg with a stylus in a wax-resist dyeing process, from Proto-Slavic *pьsati, related to *pьstrъ (“feathered”), + feminine ending -ка (-ka).

A hand-decorated Ukrainian Easter egg with intricate designs.

пі́санка

Easter egg decorated with intricate designs


autumnal

en-adj

autumnal (comparative more autumnal, superlative most autumnal)

more autumnal (comparative)
most autumnal (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin autumnāl(is). By surface analysis, autumn + -al.


yahrzeit

PIE word
 *yóh₁r̥
Borrowed from Yiddish יאָרצײַט (yortsayt), from Middle High German jārzīt (“anniversary; Christian commemoration of a person’s death”); from Middle High German jār (“year”) (from Old High German jār (“year”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yéh₁n- (“year”)) + Middle High German zīt (“time”) (from Old High German zīt (“time”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dī- (“time”)). The Yiddish word is cognate with German Jahreszeit (“season”), which heavily influenced the spelling and pronunciation once the word was borrowed into English. Doublet of yeartide.

der

"Yahrzeit" (year's time) is the anniversary of the parent's death. On the evening preceding, a light is kindled in the house, and kept burning until the following sundown. Synagogue service in the morning and evening is also attended, and the kaddish recited. "Nahala" (inheritance) is the poetic equivalent of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews for the Teutonic Yahrzeit.

1892 February, Richard Wheatley, “The Jews in New York.—II.”, in The Century Illustrated Magazine, volume XLIII, number 4, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co.; London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, →OCLC, page 516:

Sad to say, the Yahrzeit of every-Jew is fading away from the memory of the average Jew in America.

1930 August 1, Leon Spitz, “Tisha b’Ab—The yahrzeit of every Jew”, in The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, Montreal, Que.: The Eagle Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:

The yahrzeit is here, and the least lachrymose country on earth is devising its rituals of commemoration.

2002 September 2, Leon Wieseltier, “A Year Later”, in Peter Beinart, editor, The New Republic, New York, N.Y.: The Republic Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

Let's remember Hank Greenberg's yahrzeit, the 30th of Av, which falls this year on Sept. 3.

2016 August 10, Irwin Cohen, “Hank Greenberg’s 30th yahrzeit”, in The Jewish Press, New York, N.Y.: The Jewish Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-01-13:

(Judaism) The anniversary of a person's death, usually a parent's, often marked by the lighting of a memorial candle and other rituals.

נַחֲלָה

(Judaism) anniversary of a person's death


twenties

teens · twenties · thirties · forties · fifties · sixties · seventies · eighties · nineties

Gay Nineties · Naughty Nineties · Roaring Twenties · Dirty Thirties · Swinging Sixties

My roommates said they were hosting a party inspired by the twenties which I assumed meant the 1920s but it turned out the theme was the 1120s BCE.

The decade of the 1820s, 1920s, 2020s, etc.


thirties

It says here on your resume that your last job was as a streetcorner apple vendor―that's quite a thirties profession!

The Road to Glory, while not the best, was likewise not the least of the thirties films which may justly be called "anti-war" in both intent and execution.

1975, Michael T. Isenberg, “An Ambiguous Pacifism: A Retrospective on World War I Films, 1930–1938”, in Journal of Popular Film, volume 4, number 2, →DOI, page 109:

A decade starting with the year xx30, most usually the decade from 1930 to 1939.

He looked to be in his thirties.

The decade of one's life from age 30 through age 39.


thirties

Yearslong droughts? How thirties!

'Something light and airy for this last burst of summer, non?' said Madame, and held up a dress in creamy pink crêpe-de-Chine. 'Very thirties, n'est-ce pas? I adore this fabric—so fluid, so graceful.'

1990, Catherine George, Come Back to Me, Harlequin Books, →ISBN, page 58:

From or evoking the 31st through 40th years of a century (chiefly the 1930s).


fifties

The fifties were the heyday of the excursion train, with the 1851 Exhibition naturally giving a great boost to such traffic.

1954 June, R. Marchant, “Early Excursion Trains”, in Railway Magazine, page 427:


sixties

During the sixties [1860s] the Sabbatarians were particularly active in their attacks on Sunday excursions, and this had an effect both on the companies and the public.

Alternative letter-case form of Sixties (The decade of the 1860s, 1960s, etc.)


seventies

Our readers — and contributors — are apt to elect a good deal according to years. The seventies and eighties, we may suppose, are concerned for the large educational and cultural interests of their Alma Mater; the nineties are deep in the practical and business activities; the noughties are not naughty, but still young enough to sport a fantastic costume at reunion and let the college wag as it will; the oneties are the really wise as to what the college ought to be, especially on its athletic side, but as contributors modest.

1914, Amherst College, Amherst Graduates' Quarterly, volume 4, page 6:

'The Bride' [a snowdrop variety], found in the early Seventies at Foxcote Farm near Cheltenham, was his first discovery. It's a poculiform (cup-shaped) G. elwesii with six pure white petals of the same length.

2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8:


eighties

1914, Amherst College, “Amherst graduates' quarterly”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 4, page 6:

1919, Harry Hamilton Johnston, The Gay-Dombeys: A Novel, Macmillan, page 172,
He and his clever staff of minor blackguards exploited to the full every weakness and caries in the London Society of the 'eighties, 'nineties, and 'oughts.


nineties

the nineties (canonical plural singular)

The line was doubled in the nineties and Hillfoot station added for suburbanites in 1900.

1959 October, G. H. Robin, “Railways to Helensburgh—a pre-electrification prospect”, in Trains Illustated, page 541:

While PSB [public service broadcasting] has always been subject to multiple influences there is no question that the nineties was a period of massive structural transformation.

2001, Gay Hawkins, “The ABC and Rhetorics of Choice”, in Tony Bennett, David Carter, editors, Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 176:


quarter-day

1908, It is late in March, so quarter-day is at hand. — Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge’ (Norton 2005, p. 1239)

(British) Each of the four days customarily regarded as starting a new quarter year, on which rents etc are often due.


Shavuot

Borrowed from Hebrew שָׁבוּעוֹת (shavu'ót).

Major Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Simchat Torah, Succoth, Chanukah, Passover and Shavuot have been celebrated with Hebrew prayers and songs.

1971, United States Congress: Senate: Foreign Relations, Public Financing of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

On the first day of Shavuot the Ten Commandments were explained to the people homiletically in the vernacular.

1975, Israel Zinberg, Old Yiddish Literature from Its Origins to the Haskalah Period:

(Judaism) A Jewish holiday that occurs in the spring, a harvest festival, also commemorating the anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai.


The decade beginning in '90 and ending in '99 of a century.

the decade of the 1990s — see also nineties


It was cocaine. I snorted Blow a couple of times. It was the perfect 80s drug after all.

2014, Laura Di Battista, If It Bleeds It leads, page 125:


“Such templates I heard only in the 70s and 80s — extreme nonprofessionalism and surprisingly visible censorship.

2007 May 19, C. J. Chivers, “Eviction Notice Is Latest Russian Move Against Journalists”, in The New York Times:


I suppose you could blame it on my generation, chickens from the 60s finally coming into roost.


Tens, written as a number but in plural form.

The tens, the second decade of a century: the 1910s, 2010s, etc.


Rosh Hodesh

In the Jewish calendar, the first day of a new month.


Father's Day

A holiday in celebration of fatherhood, or to honor fathers, celebrated on the third Sunday of June in most of the world's countries. See Wikipedia:Father's Day:Dates.


Christmassy

en-adj

Christmassy (comparative Christmassier, superlative Christmassiest)

Christmassier (comparative)
Christmassiest (superlative)

It is important to guard against any hint of a generalisation here that 'less Christmassy music' always accompanies a 'less Christmassy sentiment', and indeed Greg Lake's 'I Believe In Father Christmas' (1974) is proof that the converse is not […]

2008, Sheila Whiteley, Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 122:

Mark: That looks like a lovely turkey. I'm sorry I flew off the handle a bit.
Jeremy: That wasn't very Christmassy.
Mark: No, it wasn't. I apologise.

2010, Jesse Armstrong & Sam Bain, "Seasonal Beatings", Peep Show Series 7, Episode 5, Channel 4

They [Asian pears] are unquestionably Christmassy and festive, with their golden speckled skin.

2015 September 5, Mark Diacono, “In praise of the Asian pear”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 2015-09-12, page 1:

Resembling or having feelings of Christmas; festive.

nadalenc

resembling or having feelings of Christmas


Pioneer Day

(US) A Utah state holiday celebrating the arrival of Mormon pioneers in what became Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1847.

день пионеров

Utah state holiday celebrating the arrival of Mormon pioneers in what would become Salt Lake City


pastiera

Borrowed from Italian, from pasta (“pasta, dough”).

A Neapolitan tart made from wheat, eggs, and ricotta, traditionally eaten at Easter.


Fourth of July

/ˌfɔːθ‿əv d͡ʒʊˈlaɪ/

/ˌfɔɹθ‿əv d͡ʒəˈlaɪ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Fourth of July.wav

The proper noun is probably derived from the phrase “the fourth day of July”. The common noun is derived from the proper noun.

And the Ohio State Journal reports that “it was the hottest, quietest, and safest Fourth of July that Columbus ever had. The firecracker, the gun, and the cannon did not appear, and so there was not an injured or mangled boy or dead body anywhere yesterday as a result of powder patriotism. What a happy condition for the city to be in! What a marked difference from other days, after the Fourth. It seems that these ear splitting and soul stabbing Fourth of Julys are ended; and it is well; it is very well.”

1911 July 16, “A Saner Fourth”, in The Chicago Sunday Tribune, volume LXX, number 29, Chicago, Ill.: The Tribune Company, Metropolitan Section, page 4, column 3:

MARY went in to the frail little mother and told her the news through the cotton wool in both ears. Mrs. Davis had no difficulty hearing, so beautifully penetrating is good news. The relief in her pale little face “choked” Mary. / “My dear! You are an angel, there in that white robe! All you haven’t got is wings! If you knew—if anybody but me could know the tortures Fourth of Julys are to me.[…]”

1921 July 2, Annie Hamilton Donnell, “Do-As-You-Please Day: A Fourth of July Story”, in The Christian Herald […], volume 44, number 27, New York, N.Y.: Graham Patterson, page 469, column 1:

Our Fourth of Julys are sounding different, too. Come to one of our barbeques and you might hear “Praise the Lord and Pass the Metamucil” or that ol’ patriotic favorite “Let Eardrums Ring.”

2005, Martha Bolton, “Season’s Greetings”, in Growing Your Own Turtleneck… and Other Benefits of Aging, Bloomington, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, →ISBN, page 98:

The national holiday of Independence Day in the United States, celebrated on the fourth day in July to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776.


qualtagh

PIE word
 *ḱóm
Borrowed from Manx qualtagh, quaaltagh (“first person one meets after leaving the house; first person one meets on New Year’s Day”, literally “one who meets or is met”), from quaail (“act of meeting; a meeting”) (ultimately from Old Irish comdál, from com- (prefix meaning ‘with’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by; near; with”)) + dál (“part, share; land in which a tribe lives”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide; to share”))) + -agh (suffix forming adjectives and nouns expressing belonging, a connection to, having, or an involvement with). The interfix -t- may be modelled after an unattested form of Old Irish comaltae (“foster-brother; companion”).

cog

A company of young lads or men, generally went in old times on what they termed the Qualtagh, at Christmas or New Year's Day to the house of their more wealthy neighbours; some one of the company repeating in an audible voice the following rhyme:– […] they were then invited in to partake of the best that the house could afford.

[1835, Archibald Cregeen, “Quaal′tagh or Qual′tagh”, in A Dictionary of the Manks Language, with the Corresponding Words or Explanations in English; […], Douglas, Isle of Man: […] J. Quiggin, […]; Whittaker, Treacher, and Arnot, […]; Evans, Chegwin, and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 132, column 2:

On these occasions a person of dark complexion always enters first, as a light haired male or female is deemed unlucky to be a first-foot or quaaltagh on New Year's morning. The actors of the quaaltagh do not assume fantastic habiliments like the Mummers of England or the Guisards of Scotland, nor do they, like these rude performers of the ancient mysteries, appear ever to have been attended by minstrels playing on different kinds of musical instruments.

1845, Joseph Train, “Manners and Customs”, in An Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man, from the Earliest Times to the Present Date; […], volume II, Douglas, Isle of Man: […] Mary A. Quiggin, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 115:

The Manx attach great importance to the qualtagh, or first person met with on the occurrence of any particularly important event, as in going to the fishery, the first day of the new year, a birth-day or a christening. On these occasions, in order to insure good luck or to avert an evil eye, they make a present of food or drink to the person met. The present Bishop of Bath and Wells, when Bishop of Sodor and Man, upon one occasion was the qualtagh of a poor christening party, […] and very kindly partook of their humble offering.

1861, Joseph George Cumming, “Manners and Customs”, in A Guide to the Isle of Man with the Means of Access thereto and an Introduction to Its Scenery: […], London: Edward Stanford, […], →OCLC, page 22:

Who would the ‘Qualtagh’ to a parish be?

1875, Oscar Harrison, The Isle-iad; or, King Orry’s Banquet. A Fragment of a Mankish Tale, Douglas, Isle of Man: James Brown & Co., page 59; quoted in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, 1903, →OCLC, page 667, column 1:

On New Year's Eve there occurred an incident which greatly increased the tension at Claddagh House. Mrs. Colquitt was in a painful state of agitation about the quaaltagh, or first person who should cross the threshold after midnight. If he happened to be dark, she anticipated some wonderful slice of luck; if light, a continuance of misfortune; and if a spaagaght or splay-footed person, nothing short of a calamity. […] [S]he kept trotting up and downstairs, being imperatively urged to confide to Mona her wish that the quaaltagh might be somebody she had just thought of, a different somebody each time.

1887, Hugh Coleman Davidson, “Suspense”, in The Green Hills by the Sea: A Manx Story […], volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], →OCLC, pages 4–5:

[page 79] At present New Year's Day is the time when the qualtagh is of general interest, and in this case he is practically the first person one sees (besides the members of one's own household) on the morning of that day, whether that person meets one out of doors or comes to one's house. The following is what I have learnt by inquiry as to the qualtagh: all are agreed that he must not be a woman or girl,[…]. The prevalent belief, however, is that he should be a dark-haired man or boy, […] An English lady living in the neighbourhood of Castletown told me that her son, whom I know to be, like his mother, a pronounced blond, […] called at a house in Castletown on the morning of New Year's Day, and he chanced to be the qualtagh. The mistress of the house was horrified, and expressed her anticipation of misfortunes to the English lady; […] [page 90] Mr. [Alfred] Nutt: […] [I]f red-haired and splay-footed people, the qualtaghs were not likely women of the aboriginal race, i.e., assuming this race to have been a dark, small, high-instepped one.

1892 March, John Rhys, “Manx Folk-lore and Superstitions. II.”, in Folk-lore: A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, & Custom, volume III, number I, London: David Nutt, […], →OCLC, pages 79 and 90:

"I should be the first-foot here, only I'm no use as a qualtagh," said Philip. / "Why not?" / "I'm a fair man, and would bring you no luck, you know."

1894 January–July, Hall Caine, chapter II, in The Manxman, London: William Heinemann, published 3 August 1894 (1 September 1894 printing), →OCLC, part II (Boy and Girl), page 71:

The "White Boys," the "Hunt the Wren Boys," and "Quaaltaghs" received the dessert.

1911, John Clague, Cooinaghtyn Manninagh: Manx Reminiscences, Castletown, Isle of Man: M. J. Backwell, →OCLC, page 11:

The Foolish Fortnight and its gaieties may have been relinquished under the relentless pressure of modern life as we choose to live it, but at least one of the old New Year rituals is still quite vigorous amongst us – the Qualtagh, or First Foot.

1966, Mona Douglas, “The Foolish Fortnight and the Qualtagh Tradition”, in This is Ellan Vannin again: Folklore, Douglas, Isle of Man: Times Press, →OCLC, page 84:

Did you ever use to go as the ‘quaaltagh?’ […] I did indeed!

1977, Jennifer Kewley Draskau, quoting John Gell, “Verbs”, in Practical Manx, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 126:

(Isle of Man) The first person one encounters, either after leaving one's home or (sometimes) outside one's home, especially on New Year's Day; a first-foot.


Christmas creep

The inexorable tendency for the commercial aspects of Christmas to appear earlier every year.


sidereal year

The time it takes for any astronomical object in orbit around a central star to orbit that star, with respect to distant stars.


sennight

From Middle English senight, senyght, sinight (“seven days or nights, a week”) [and other forms], a shortened form of seven-night, sevenight, sevenyght [and other forms], from Late Old English seofeniht, seoueniht (compare seofonnihte (“seven days old; seven days long”, adjective)), from seofon (“seven”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ (“seven”)) + niht (“night; day (when computing spans of time)”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”)). Doublet of sevennight.

nb...

(Late Middle English) sennet, sennyght, sennyȝt, sennyt, senyte, synyght, (Late Middle English, Northern England) sennett, (Middle English) senit, senite, (Northern England) senne

sefennahht, sefnight, sefniht, seovenyght, seueniht, seuenist, seueniȝht, seue niȝt, seueniȝt, seue-niȝt, seueniȝth, seuenyght, seuenyghte, seuenyȝe, seue-nyȝt, seuenyȝth, seuenyȝtte, seuenynt, seuenyst, seuenyth, seuenyþe, sevenyghte, sevennyghtt, sevenyht, sevenyth, sevenyȝt, sevenyȝth, (North or West Midlands) sefenneghte, (Southwest Midlands) seveniþt, (Early Middle English) seue nigt, (Early Middle English, Southwest Midlands) seoue nicht, seoueniht, seoue niht, soueniht, (Early Middle English, Southwestern England) seoueniht, seoueniþt, soueniht, soueniþt, soueniȝt, souenyȝt

It will be in my power to assure him that her ladyship was quite well yesterday se'nnight.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 224:

I was snowed up at a friend's house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter. I went for only one night, and could not get away till that very day se'nnight.

1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XIII, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 244:

We leave Bath, as she has perhaps told you, on Saturday se'nnight.

1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, pages 26–27:

As for his marriage with the Lady Margaret, fixed though it was for this day sennight, the thing was so palpably absurd that he scarcely gave it a thought.

1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Orlando: A Biography, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 50:

(attributively) Preceded by a specified day such as Sunday, today, or yesterday: a week from (either before or after) the specified day.


Mother's Day

From Anna Jarvis's campaign in the early 20th century, which insisted on using a singular spelling in order to associate the day with observants' particular mothers.

عِيد اَلْأُمّ

a day in honor of one's mother or all mothers, on whichever day

Mothers Day

common misspellings or international variants

Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday#English

(UK and Ireland, informal) Synonym of Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, a moveable feast three weeks before Easter, used as a day in honor of mothers in some Commonwealth countries.


vicennial

From vicennium + -al or directly from Latin vīcenniālis, from vīcennium (“20-year span”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjective-forming suffix), from vīcennis (“20-year”) + -ium (“-ium”, suffix forming abstract nouns), from vīciēs (“20 times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives). Equivalent to vice- (“twenty”) + -ennial.

The feast of Constantine's vicennials fell on the 25th of July this year: it was the commencement of the twentieth year of his reign. It is supposed, that to avoid interrupting affairs or greater moment, this ceremony was deferred till the end of the council, which broke up the 25th of August.

1776, Charles le Beau, The History of Constantine the Great, page 267:

Roman coins mentioning the vota publica for Macrinus are RIC IV.1 5–13; on vota publica for the decennials and vicennials of emperors in the 2nd and 3rd c. ad, see Chastagnol 1984.

2022, Martin Hallmannsecker, Roman Ionia..., p. 110

(historical) Synonym of vicennalia, the festival and religious ritual held in the 20th year of a Roman emperor's reign.


Labor Day

(US) The holiday marking the unofficial end of summer, held on the first Monday in September.


martyrology

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-martyrology.wav

From martyr + -ology or from Latin martyrologium.

... we know that Augustine, a monk in the time of Gregory the Great, took with him into England the martyrology of the Roman Church.

1883, Alessio Aurelio Pelliccia, The Polity of the Christian Church..., p. 311

The study of martyrs and martyrdom; the names and stories of martyrs, particularly

(Roman Catholicism, often capitalized) A liturgical calendar of days for the commemoration of formally recognized saints, usually including some biographical notes.

(Judaism, often capitalized) Synonym of Eleh Ezkerah, a midrash concerning the Ten Martyrs killed by the Romans, usually read on both Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av.

վկայաբանություն

Roman Catholicism: a calendar of saints' days, typically with biographical information


workweek

A 32-hour workweek is a 4-day week and an 8-hour day combined.

Mrs. Lienemann, the French Housing Minister, sees socialist and ecological forces proposing what she calls “a new culture”—perhaps named “Ecosocialism”—that might, she believes, work for innovations like a 32-hour workweek, more democracy at the workplace, and “a greater stress on quality than quantity in everyday life.”

[1992 November 1, Roger Cohen, quoting Marie-Noelle Lienemann, “Ideology Wanes for Europe, Leaving Politicians Adrift”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

That trial, which began the same week as the elections that brought Margaret Thatcher to power, remains a symbol, to a certain sort of Englishman, of the societywide breakdown of the 1970s, which was a decade of currency devaluations, crippling strikes, uncollected garbage and shortened workweeks.

2009 December 7, Christopher Caldwell, “Can David Cameron Redefine Britain’s Tory Party?”, in The New York Times:

(US) The range of days of the week that are normally worked


oughts

He and his clever staff of minor blackguards exploited to the full every weakness and caries in the London Society of the 'eighties, 'nineties, and 'oughts.

1919, Harry Hamilton Johnston, The Gay-Dombeys: A Novel, Macmillan, page 172:

2000, John Maxtone-Graham, Liners to the Sun, Sheridan House, Inc., →ISBN, page xii,
And for the oughts—by which I suppose we must identify our new millennium's first decade—projected tonnage figures keep up the mind-boggling pace.

The "experts" of the Western world are slower to turn around than an ocean liner, and in Europe they were still yakking about the "population explosion" even as their 1970s schoolhouses, built in anticipation of traditional Catholic birth rates, were emptying through the nineties and oughts.

2006, Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Regnery Publishing, →ISBN, page 13:

Alternative spelling of aughts (“first decade of a century”)


Advent calendar

en-noun

Advent calendar (plural Advent calendars)

Probably a calque of German Adventskalender, the modern tradition having originated in 19th-century Germany.

A calendar used to count down the days of Advent, having windows revealing a hidden picture or gift on each day.

адве́нт-календа́рь

note that since Christmas in Russia is in January and was prohibited in Soviet times Advent calendars are untraditional for Russians


Lughnasadh

From Irish Lughnasadh (obsolete form of Lúnasa (“August”)), from Old Irish Lugnasad.

The Celtic people of Ireland viewed they year in two equal halves, Samhain, side of dark, and Beltaine, side of light. Dividing these halves are the harvest festival of Lughnasadh and the spring festival of Imbolc. The Celtic year begins November 1st, but I have started my collection in the fall harvest festival of Lughnasadh, a time of year where memories abundant dance in my head like the leaves in which my brothers and I played.

1998, Kelly Ann McMillin, Seasons of Time, Lulu.com, page i:

It was first light and the kitchens were alive with activity, this was Thar's day, the day of the festival of Lughnasadh, the beginning of a new year.

2012, Tony Collins, The Lost Crystal: Key to the ancient world of Thar Cernunnos, AuthorHouse, page 203:

August brings us to the eighth month of our modern calendar and the celebrations of the first harvest at Lughnasadh and the Corn Moon.

2014, Lotuswulf Satyrhorn, Tribes of the Moon: A Book of Otherkin Coventry, Seasonal Rituals and Lunar Magick for All 13 Months, AuthorHouse, page 138:

A Gaelic/Celtic holiday celebrated on the full moon nearest the midpoint between the summer solstice and autumnal equinox, during the time of the harvesting.

lúnasa

holiday near the midpoint between summer solstice and autumnal equinox


autumnal equinox

autumnal equinox (plural autumnal equinoxes)

(astronomy) The moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator while tilting away from the observer, taking place in September in the northern hemisphere and March in the southern hemisphere.


candy cane

(US, Canada) An edible candy in the shape of a cane or staff, generally consumed during Christmas time and usually having a peppermint flavor.


Festivus

Coined by Daniel O'Keefe and popularized on the TV series Seinfeld; either borrowed from Latin fēstīvus or else derived from its English descendants festive and festival by adding the Latin suffix -us.

"Festivus isn't about any specific religion," Doyle said, stating what seemed both obvious and reassuring. "It's inclusive. And funny."

2006, Boston Globe Article- “Yes, Virginia, there is a Festivus” http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/12/18/yes_virginia_there_is_a_festivus/?p1=MEWell_Pos4

2005, Allen Salkin, Gabi Payn (Illustrator) “Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us”

A nondenominational holiday featured in a Seinfeld episode, now celebrated (seriously or otherwise) on December 23rd.


St. Stephen's Day

en-proper noun

St. Stephen's Day (countable and uncountable, plural St. Stephen's Days)

And the Commonalty having renewed their Petition on the Friday following, being Chriſtmas Day: And the King's Will being known, and his Warrant obtained, the ſaid Charter, which confirmed the Perambulation, was ſealed on Saturday, being St. Stephen’s Day, in a little Houſe near the Severn, belonging to the Prior of Worceſter, […]

1717, William Nelson, “Purlieu”, in Manwood’s Treatise of the Forest Laws: Shewing Not Only the Laws Now in Force, but the Original of Forests, What They are, and How They Differ from Chases, Parks, and Warrens; with All Such Things as are Incident to Either; …, 4th corrected and enlarged edition, in the Savoy [i.e., London]: Printed by E[lizabeth] Nutt (executrix of J[ohn] Nutt, assignee of Edward Sayer, Esq;) for B. Lintott at the Cross-Keys, R. Gosling at the Mitre and Crown, J. Pemberton at the Buck and Sun, all in Fleet-street; and L. Ward in Inner-Temple-Lane, →OCLC, paragraph 83, pages 283–284:

[…] Dugdale, in his Origines Judiciales, gives a long and particular account of the revelry at the Temple, on each of the twelve days of Christmas, in the year 1562. It appears from this document, that the hospitable rites of St. Stephen's Day, St. John's Day, and Twelfth Day, were ordered to be exactly alike; and as many of them are in their nature perfectly rural, there is every reason to suppose they were observed, to a certain extent, in the halls of the country gentry, and substantial yeomanry.

1821, Sholto Percy [pseudonym; Joseph Clinton Robertson], Reuben Percy [pseudonym; Thomas Byerley], The Percy Anecdotes. Original and Select, London: Printed for T. Boys, Ludgate Hill, →OCLC, page 163:

That order of the Church is the proper one, which disposes men to earnest meditation, which causes men to feel the weight of truth and be humbled under it; and that order is an unworthy one, which occupies the popular mind with deaneries and bishoprics, Michaelmases and Epiphanies, St. John's days and St. Stephen's days. If a preacher wish to present the doctrine of divine sovereignty to his hearers, he must let it pervade all the exercises of the Sabbath, […]

1844 May 28, Edwards A[masa] Park, A Discourse Delivered in Boston before the Pastoral Association of Congregational Ministers in Massachusetts, May 28, 1844, 2nd edition, Andover, Mass.: Allen, Morrill & Wardwell, →OCLC, page 25:

"Feeding the Wren" is a custom based on the legend of Saint Stephen, who was hiding in a bush and betrayed to his enemies by a wren. On Saint Stephen's Day, December 26, the young children gather together, obtain a wren, and place it in a cage on top of a bush while they go from door-to-door collecting money which will be used for charity.

1991, Stephen M. Crotts, Saint Nicholas Speaks, Lima, Oh.: C.S.S. Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 17:

Late in the morning of St. Stephen's Day, Marc mounted his horse, ready to leave Windsor, Cecily, and all of Angleterre.

2015, Blythe Gifford, chapter 13, in Whispers at Court, Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Historical, →ISBN, page 170:

Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

(Christianity) A Christian holiday commemorating Saint Stephen the protomartyr (first Christian martyr; died 34 C.E.), falling immediately after Christmas Day (on December 26 in the Western Church and on December 27 in the Eastern Orthodox Church).


Saint Stephen's Day

Saint Stephen's Day (countable and uncountable, plural Saint Stephen's Days)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Saint Stephen's Day.wav

St. Stephen's Day
St. Stephen's Day#English


Boxing Day

Perhaps because of boxes that were placed outside churches to collect special offerings tied to St. Stephen's Day; or because of the old British custom of tradesmen collecting “Christmas boxes” of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service, mentioned by the English diarist Samuel Pepys (1633–1703).

There are plenty of discounted Christmas items in the Boxing Day sale.

Boxing-day in the London streets, and especially a wet Boxing-day, can scarcely fail to afford us some tableaux vivants illustrative of English metropolitan life. […] Christmas-eve of the year about which I write was bright and springlike; Christmas-day dismal, dark, and un-Christmas-like; but Boxing-day that year was essentially muggy, sloppy, drizzly, and nasty.

1875, Charles Maurice Davies, “Boxing-day on the Streets”, in Mystic London, or, Phases of Occult Life in the Metropolis, London: Tinsley, →OCLC:

On Boxing day, December 26th, 1902, the sixth grand annual pantomime, "Jack & the beanstalk"

[1902], On Boxing Day, December 26th, 1902, the Sixth Grand Annual Pantomime, “Jack & the Beanstalk”: With which is Incorporated the Patriotic Legend, “St. George and the Dragon.” (pantomime programme), Kingston upon Thames, London: [Royal County Theatre], →OCLC, title page:

Think about all those Boxing Day sales, then sit back and relish in the fact that you have enough and that you don't give a shit.

2015 January 5, Steven J. Bennett, “Rule #12: Boxing Day”, in 365 Rules of the New World: If We Had a Chance to Do It All Over Again, Would We Do It Right?, Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House, →ISBN, page 483:

Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26 each year and is a national holiday in the UK. […] Boxing Day is a time to spend with family or friends, particularly those not seen on Christmas Day itself. It is also a day to eat left over turkey. […] Boxing Day is also a time when the Brits show their eccentricity by taking part in all kinds of bizarre traditions including swimming the icy cold English Channel, or running into the sea, fun runs and charity events. December 26 is a big day for sales too. Dramatic price reductions lure out millions of shoppers who even queue for hours before the shops open.

2016 December 22, Chloe Kerr, “More turkey! Where does Boxing Day get its name, what are its origins and how is it celebrated?”, in The Sun, London:

The day after Christmas; the 26th of December.

يَوْم اَلصَّنَادِيق

the day after Christmas: 26 December — see also St. Stephen's Day


Festival of Lights

From the importance of candles or light during the celebrations.

[…] celebration of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights[.]

1996, Jewish Life and Thought among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings:

One of our more Judaically advanced cellmates gave us insightful lessons about the laws and customs of the Festival of Lights.

2012, Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul, →ISBN:


Christmas season

en-noun

Christmas season (plural Christmas seasons)

(US, informal, retail and marketing) The winter season starting around Thanksgiving (typically Black Friday) and ending at or about New Year's Eve.


Christmas cracker

Christmas cracker (plural Christmas crackers)

(British, Canada, New Zealand) A table decoration, in the form of a large paper sweet wrapper, constructed around a cardboard tube typically containing a paper hat, silly joke and a small novelty or toy; a pair of people pull the ends of the cracker causing an embedded device to make a crack sound as the cracker breaks in two and the contents are released.


Groundhog Day

The prominence of the groundhog as a popular figure in the country lore of the Eastern States is shown by his having been given a place with the Saints on the calendar, February 2 being widely known as "Groundhog Day." It is claimed that on this date the groundhog wakes from his long winter sleep and appears at the mouth of his burrow to look about and survey the weather. If the sun shines so that he can see his shadow, bad weather is indicated and he retires to resume his sleep for another six weeks. Otherwise, the winter is broken and mild weather is predicted. Even on the outskirts of Washington some of the countrymen still appraise the character of the coming spring by the weather on "Groundhog Day."

1918 May, Edward W. Nelson, “Smaller Mammals of North America”, in National Geographic, volume XXXIII, number 5, page 434:

An annual festival held in Canada and the USA on February 2 in which the arrival time of the spring season is predicted by whether or not a certain groundhog can see its shadow.


jack-o'-lantern

Originally, a night watchman who carried a lantern. (See Jack.)
Attested as a term for ignis fatuus in English folklore in the 1660s, mostly in East Anglia but also in southwestern England.
The sense of carved pumpkin in American English is attested in 1834.

A carved pumpkin whose top and stem have been cut out and interior removed, leaving a hollow shell that is then decorated to represent a face, illuminated from within by a candle. It is a symbol of Halloween.


Little Christmas

(Ireland) January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany.


astronomical year

astronomical year (plural astronomical years)

The time it takes the Earth to pass once around the Sun, particularly a tropical, sidereal, or anomalistic year.


working week

He was my North, my South, my East and West, / My working week and my Sunday rest

(British) The days of the week that are usually worked on, i.e. Monday to Friday.


POETS day

Probably 20th century British; derived from the acronym Piss Off (or Push Off) Early, Tomorrow's Saturday or perhaps earlier Piss Off (or Push Off) Early, Today's Saturday.

He was about to walk out the door when Malika came in with the weighty, leatherbound Consejo book that recorded the Board minutes. Alex′s heart sank. Malika looked surprised.
‘Malika, it′s POETS day. Time to go home.’
‘POETS day?’
‘Yes. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow′s Saturday.’

2002, M. J. Lynley, Malika, Mithrandir Books, UK, page 177

‘It′s poets′ day,’ said one of the crew. ‘Poets′ day?’ said Tony incredulously. ‘In Leeds?!?’ ‘Yes, POETS — Piss Off Early Tomorrow′s Saturday.’

2003, Richard Eyre, National Service: Diary of a Decade at the National Theatre, page 14:

‘Check your computer in about an hour′s time. But be warned – POETS day, meaning the CID cupboard might be a bit on the Mother Hubbard side.’
‘Appreciate anything you can get for us, Stan. Happy trails.’ Rebus clicked the phone shut. ‘POETS day,’ he reminded Siobhan.
‘Piss Off Early, Tomorrow′s Saturday,’ she recited.

2006, Ian Rankin, The Naming of the Dead, published 2008, unnumbered page:

(humorous, UK, Australia, New Zealand) Friday, the last day of the working week.


calendar month

In Calcutta, season tickets are issued only for the calendar month, with a different colour for each month, so that this problem does not arise. The merest whisper of an idea to change Bombay to the Calcutta system brought such a howl of protest in the Press, that it was never seriously contemplated.

1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 779:

The period of duration from the first date of one month to the last date of the same month, which can thus vary from 28 to 31 days in length.


Mardi Gras

/ˈmɑːdi ɡɹɑː/

/ˈmɑɹdi ɡɹɑ/

/ˈmɑɹdi ɡɹɔ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Mardi Gras.wav

Borrowed from French mardi gras (literally “fat Tuesday”).

bor+

Mardi-gras was ushered in with various ceremonies, offering a strange mixture of devotion and profaneness.

1839, Marguerite Blessington, The idler in Italy, Henry Colburn, page 299:

Dancing, fiddling, and feasting at Christmas and on Mardi-gras, before Lent, and feasting at or after Easter, are among their amusements or indulgences.

1847, John Macgregor, The Progress of America: From the Discovery by Columbus to the Year 1846, Whittaker & Co., page 88:

Today's wild Mardi Gras parades are much different than the original, more religious events of the Middle Ages.

2007, Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Traditions And Stories of Easter, Zondervan, →ISBN, page 113:

The day when traditionally all fat and meat in the house were finished up, before Christians were banned from eating them during Lent, which commenced the following day on Ash Wednesday.


Spring Festival

en-noun

Spring Festival (plural Spring Festivals)

A calque of Chinese 春節 /春节 (Chūnjié), the usual modern name for the holiday.

Although the Hui in the northwest do not celebrate the Han holidays of Zhongqiu, Qingming, or even Chun Jie (Spring Festival), the Hui in most of China's cities gladly participate.

2020, Dru C. Gladney, Muslim Chinese..., p. 192

Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year#English

(chiefly China) Synonym of Chinese New Year.


Waitangi Day

The national day of New Zealand and a public holiday held each year on February 6 to celebrate the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document. The Treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Māori rights to their land and gave Māori the rights of British citizens.


Earth Day

(North American countries) April 22; Created in 1970, global day of observance of the need to protect the earth.


Holy Thursday

From Middle English Holy Thursday, holy Thurysday, hooly þursday, haly þorsday, Hallʒhe Þurrsdaʒʒ, equivalent to holy + Thursday.

(Christianity) Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter


Pascha

Pascha (countable and uncountable, plural Paschas)

From Latin pascha (“Passover”), from Ancient Greek πάσχα (páskha, “Passover”), from Aramaic פַּסְחָא (paskha), from Hebrew פֶּסַח (pésakh). Doublet of Pasch, paskha, and Pesach.

crucifixional Pascha

Ancient Greek: πάσχα σταυρώσιμον

crucifixional pascha

Ancient Greek: πάσχα σταυρώσιμον

resurrectional Pascha

Ancient Greek: πάσχα ἀναστάσιμον

resurrectional pascha

Ancient Greek: πάσχα ἀναστάσιμον

Easter, the most important Christian religious holy day or feast.

Orthodox Christian church services during the week succeeding Easter.


Pascha

In the Orthodox Christian church, Pascha week is the week succeeding Easter.

(attributive) Pertaining to either Passover or Easter (Pascha is an ambiguous term and its meaning depends on context).


lebkuchen

en-noun

lebkuchen (plural lebkuchen or lebkuchens)

Borrowed from German Lebkuchen, from Middle High German lebekuoche. The origin of the first component is uncertain: it might come from Latin libum (“flat bread”) or Germanic Laib, loaf, or Leb-Honig, crystallized honey often used in baking.

The kettle was coming to the boil, and the tray was ready with two teacups and the little sweet lebkuchen that Rachel liked.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

A traditional German Christmas biscuit form of gingerbread.


Well before the mid-1970s, when digitalization ended the tone-based system, Joybubbles had stopped stealing calls.

2007 August 20, Douglas Martin, “Joybubbles, 58, Peter Pan of Phone Hackers, Dies”, in The New York Times:

The production on “Liverpool 8” has the heft and definition of modern multitracking, resembling Mr. Starr’s early-1970s hits rather than the Beatles themselves.

2008 January 14, Jon Pareles, “New CDs”, in The New York Times:

On the Alxa Plateau of Inner Mongolia, Gaxun Nur Lake (262 km²) dried in the 1970s and the Sogo Nur Lake in the 1980s.

2008, Robert Jellison, William D. Williams, Brian Timms, Javier Alcocer, Nikolay V. Aladin, “Salt lakes: values, threats and future”, in Nicholas V. C. Polunin, editor, Aquatic Ecosystems: Trends and Global Prospects, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 99, column 2:

Sandra used to be a regular club-goer with her husband and two young sons in the 1970s.

2012, Ruth Cherrington, Not Just Beer and Bingo! a Social History of Working Men's Clubs, →ISBN, page 95:

The sysprogs of the 1970s and early '80s also tended the mainframe as it shook and rattled incongruously on the edge of Dartmouth's Colonial campus.

2017, Virginia Heffernan, Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art, page 19:

The decade beginning in 1970 and ending in 1979.


If the '60s were over in 1972, the ’70s were in trouble by 1977. Don't get me wrong — the Eagles and Foreigner and Earth, Wind & Fire are, er, survivors. Good or bad they're careerists, they jog two miles a day, and they're all destined to outlast the Ramones.

1981, Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the '70s, as republished (unabridged) in 1990 asRock albums of the '70s: a critical guide; page 10


round robin

/ˌɹaʊnd ˈɹɒbɪn/

From round (adjective) + robin. Sense 1 (“senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around”) is connected with the word round, while sense 2 (“senses relating to people, animals, or plants”) is connected with some English regional senses of the word robin where it is used in the names of various fish and plants which are not related to the red-breasted bird. However, apart from the alliteration, it is not clear why the two words came to be linked together in compounds. It is possible that the term was first used to refer to sense 1.13.1 (“consecrated host”) which appears to be the earliest attested sense, and then extended to other senses either having the sense of round or robin.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a corruption of French ruban rond (literally “round ribbon”), referring to the practice in 17th-century France of signing on ribbons which were then attached to petitions of grievances in a circular manner: see sense 1.1. However, this etymology does not explain the senses of the term unrelated to a signed document.

der

[T]he Sacrament of the Altar, is nothing elſe but a piece of bread, or a little predie Round-Robin.

1659, Thomas Fuller, “The Fifth Book. Relating to the Time of King Henry the Eighth.”, in The Appeal of Iniured Innocence: Unto the Religious Learned and Ingenious Reader: In a Controversie betwixt the Animadvertor Dr. Peter Heylyn and the Author Thomas Fuller, London: […] W. Godbid, and are to be sold by John Williams […], →OCLC, part II, page 60:

(also attributive) Senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around.

(Christianity, derogatory) The consecrated host used in the Eucharist.

Senses relating to people, animals, or plants.

(Canada, US, rare) A freshwater sunfish native to eastern North America, either the pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) or the redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus).


Memorial Day

Memorial Day (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Tomb Sweeping Day
Tomb Sweeping Day#English

(uncommon) Synonym of Tomb Sweeping Day, a Chinese holiday.


spring equinox

en-noun

spring equinox (plural spring equinoxes)


autumn equinox

autumn equinox (plural autumn equinoxes)


KIRK: We're reading it, Lieutenant. I thought you said it couldn't possibly be an Earth vessel.
SPOCK: I fail to understand why it always gives you pleasure to see me proven wrong.
KIRK: An emotional Earth weakness of mine. There it is.
KIRK: An old Earth vessel, similar to the DY-500 class.
SPOCK: Much older. DY-100 class, to be exact. Captain, the last such vessel was built centuries ago, back in the 1990s.
KIRK: Then it's a derelict, its signal left on automatic.
SPOCK: Or an old Earth ship being used by aliens.

1967 February 16, Space Seed (Star Trek), season 1, number 22 (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television:

That programme, begun in the early 1990s, cost billions of Taiwan dollars, but eventually tamed the river, especially because of the Yuanshanzih flood diversion tunnel (sluiceway), which helps redirect run-off from the upper reaches of the river to the sea on the north-east coast, thus saving the often flooded townships of Rueifang and Hsichih (Sijhih)⁷ when future typhoons and heavy rains hit the area.

2008, Jack Williams, Ch’ang-yi David Chang, “Back from the brink: resolving Taiwan's environmental problems”, in Taiwan's Environmental Struggle: Toward a Green Silicon Island, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 108:

The period from year 1990 to 1999; almost the same period as the 10th (and last) decade of the 20th century, which, however, was from 1991 to (the end of) year 2000


Shrovetide

The three days immediately preceding Lent; Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday, preceding Ash Wednesday.


Bloody Sunday

(historical) A 1905 event in St Petersburg in which as many as 4,000 unarmed citizens were killed by state forces.

(historical, US) A 1965 event in Selma, Alabama, where peaceful civil rights protesters were brutally beaten by police.

We eat and drink while tomorrow they die / Sunday, Bloody Sunday / The real battle just begun / Sunday, Bloody Sunday

1983, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, in War, performed by U2:

(historical, British, Ireland) A 1972 event in Northern Ireland in which 14 civil rights protesters were shot and killed by a British Army regiment.

(historical) Any of many similar events; see Bloody Sunday on Wikipedia for a complete list.


Sixty other former ASNA raiders, captured by the Communists while conducting commando activities on the mainland in the early 1960s, were released on the same day from Amoy to Tatan, an offshore island just off the mainland.

1975 October 26, “Propaganda behind commando release”, in Free China Weekly [自由中國週報], volume XVI, number 42, Taipei, →ISSN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 2, columns 2, 3:

The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China.

2014 January 20, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “‘She. Herself. Naked.': The Art of He Chengyao”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-16, Sinosphere:

The decade beginning in 1960 and ending in 1969.


Gerassi discussed the parallels between the witchhunt directed against gay men in Boise during the 1950s and the recent arrests of twelve men charged with sex offenses in Revere.

1978 April 1, “Author Gerassi Speaks on the Parallels Between Boise and Boston”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

Jumming, a particular type of agriculture requiring burning of forest to prepare floor for farming has been prohibited in the Madhupur Garh Forest from the 1950s but continues to be practiced in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

1998, B. K. Roy Burman, B. G. Verghese, Aspiring to be: the tribal, indigenous condition, page 189:

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have been manufactured since the 1950s for use as surface protectants for textiles and leather treatment, as protection additives in food packaging and paper products, and in firefighting foams.

2015, “PFASs in the General Population”, in Jamie C. DeWitt, editor, Toxicological Effects of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, Humana Press, →ISBN, page 51:

The decade beginning in 1950 and ending in 1959.


His knowledge of both Hong Kong and the Mainland made a deep impression on me during the hour we spent over lunch. Huang had learned Cantonese from his wife, who studied Chinese medicine in Guangzhou during the 1940s, and now owned a Chinese herbal medicine shop in the Yau Ma Ti district.

2009, Stanley S.K. Kwan, Nicole Kwan, “New China”, in The Dragon and the Crown: Hong Kong Memoirs (Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Studies Series), Hong Kong University Press, published 2011, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 135:


trick-or-treating

Coordinate term: souling

The practice of going house to house on Halloween evening to receive treats.


Beltane

From the Celtic *belo-tanos "bright fire".

And quhair it be tainted that they big, and the Birdes be flowin, and the nest be funden in the Trees at Beltane the trees sal be foirfaulted to the King (bot gif they be redeemed fra him, throw them that they first perteined to) and hewin downe, and siue schillings to the King is unlaw.

1424, James I of Scotland, The lawes and actes of parliament maid be King James the first and his successours kinges of Scotland, Edinburgh edition, Robert Waldegrave, published 1597, page A3:

The first day of May (since 1752); May Day, a Scottish quarter day, sometimes associated by Christians with the nearest Church Feast, the Invention of the Cross (3 May), and Whitsunday (15 May).


national holiday

national holiday (plural national holidays)

A statutory holiday enacted by a country to commemorate the country itself.

National Day

holiday to commemorate the country itself


Eostre

A learned borrowing from Old English Ēostre, the Northumbrian variant of West Saxon Ēastre (“a word referring to "the rising dawn" to indicate the season of Spring”) and ēastre (“Easter”), from Proto-West Germanic *austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ (“Easter, springtime”). Doublet of Easter.

der

A hypothesised West Germanic goddess, supposedly of the spring season, but of uncertain provenance.


Spy Wednesday

From the idea that Judas Iscariot was spying on Jesus before betraying him. The Middle Irish equivalent, Cédaín in Braith ["Wednesday of Betrayal" or "Spy Wednesday"], is attested in the 15th-century Leabhar Breac.

CATHEDRAL. Spy-Wednesday—Evening Office of Tenebrae, at 5½ o'clock.

1844 March 30, “Order of Service in Holy Week.”, in Bengal Catholic Herald, Vol.VI No.13 p.174:

On Spy Wednesday 1916 Thomas McDonagh gave B Company, 2nd Battalion, Irish Volunteers a pep talk.

1974 January 23, Seamus de Burca, "Peadar Kearney (1883–1942)" Dublin Historical Record (Old Dublin Society) Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 42–56 : 49


Holy Wednesday

The Wednesday of Holy Week; the day before Maundy Thursday.


decennials

en-noun

decennials pl (normally plural, singular decennial)

(historical) Synonym of decennalia, the festivals and religious rituals held in the 10th year of a Roman emperor's reign.


school night

Jamie has to go to bed at 9:00 on school nights, but on Friday and Saturday he gets to stay up as late as he wants.

I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm in a graveyard with a strange man hunting for vampires on a school night.

1992, Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (motion picture), spoken by Buffy (Kristy Swanson):

An evening before a typical school day; normally a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night.


Juneteenth

en-proper noun

Juneteenth (countable and uncountable, plural Juneteenths)

Blend of June + nineteenth, commemorating the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when Union Army General Gordon Granger (1821–1876) issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, to enforce President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862. The General Order stated that all previously enslaved people in Texas were now free. Entered wider usage after becoming a federal holiday in 2021.

There was^([sic – meaning were]) not so many colored people in the city as usual on Saturday evening, all of them, very near, being out at the "Juneteenth siliibration."

1891 June 25, “Local news”, in Brenham Weekly Banner, volume XXVI, number 26, Brenham, Tex.: J[ohn] G. Rankin, →OCLC, page [7], column 1:

If there is plenty of sunshine within the next ten days there will be sufficient supply of watermelons in Southwest Texas to take care of the "Juneteenth" celebrations of San Antonio's colored population.

1912 June 15, “Watermelons are Moving”, in Fruit Trade Journal and Produce Record, volume XXXXVII, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Fruit Trade Journal Company, →OCLC, page 12:

"'Twere Juneteenth day," she began reverentially, "when my light firs' broke. The darkies all bunched up down in the live oak grove were a-singin' an' a-dancin', 'spressin' their glory 'cause they warnt no mo' slaves nohow.["]

1921, Julia Walcott Hoffman, chapter I, in Pearl o’ Great Price or A Woman’s ’Sperience, Chicago, Ill.: Gift and Music Shop, →OCLC, page 11:

"But whut if it rains?" asked Josy. "It always do rain on Juneteenth." / "Dat's jes' de way of it," said John. "Someone is always a-th'owin' cold water on eve'ything I does."

1922, Hubert Anthony Shands, chapter VIII, in White and Black, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 50:

He had invited her to attend the Juneteenth picnic as his guest all day. And now he had done something that never, in all his life, had he heard of any colored boy doing before—planned an expensive outing right on the eve of the big annual event. [...] "Juneteenth"—white people also pretty generally use the phrase—is their Emancipation Day, and it is the one day in the year when every Caucasian is supposed to consider the comfort and enjoyment of his negro friends ahead of his own.

1925, J. Frank Davis, “Episode I. Juneteenth and Joada”, in Almanzar Evarts, Hero, Macon, Ga.: J. W. Burke Company, →OCLC, pages 13–14:

Truck drivers, business men, and school teachers belonging to the racial group have told me tales, but the best of tale-tellers has been some ex-slave buoyed up by the spirit of a Nineteenth of June celebration—the "Juneteenth"—the day on which all colored people in the South commemorate the freedom of their race from slavery. The significance of the day is so great and the tales I have collected are so bound up with the legalized slavery which, in 1865, this day put an end to, that I have used Juneteenth as a title. Nobody who does not understand a Juneteenth celebration can ever understand the Negro or his songs and tales.

1932, J[ohn] Mason Brewer, “Juneteenth”, in J[ames] Frank Dobie, editor, Tone the Bell Easy (Publications of the Texas Folk-lore Society; no. 10), Austin, Tex.: Texas Folk-lore Society, →OCLC, pages 8–54:

The annual celebration by Negroes of June 19—the day when emancipation from slavery became effective in the State [...]—is general; few Texas Negroes would consider working on "Juneteenth" if it can be avoided. The holiday is generally observed by a picnic at which everyone eats, dances and sings to his heart's content.

1940, Writers’ Program, Work Projects Administration, Texas, “Folklore and Folkways”, in Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State (American Guides Series), New York, N.Y.: Hastings House, published 1943, →OCLC, part I (Texas: Yesterday and Today), page 97:

As I chewed on my extra-hot barbecue sandwich, Mr. Artis Lovelady, the vendor and celebration sponsor, explained why he was having a Juneteenth observance: "I just wanted to do something, just wanted to kinda bring back old times and let the younger people see what we used to do to celebrate it on account of our Emancipation Proclamation."

1987, William H. Wiggins, Jr., “Following the Freedom Trail”, in O Freedom!: Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations, Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 5:

But what they [black people] chose to emphasize by means of traditional activities each year was the memory of gaining freedom. Consequently in African-American communities, especially in the South, a day of prayer, preaching, and festivities usually known as "Juneteenth" came to be observed [...].

1991, Michael Kammen, “The Civil War Remembered—but Unreconciled”, in Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture, 1st Vintage Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, published February 1993, →ISBN, part 2 (Circa 1870 to 1915), page 122:

There's been a heap of Juneteenths before this one and I tell you there'll be a heap more before we're truly free!

1999, Ralph Ellison, chapter 7, in John F. Callahan, editor, Juneteenth: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 131:

On June 19, 1883, an eighteen-gun salute on the plaza in front of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, signaled the start of the annual Juneteenth observance.

2005, W[illiam] Fitzhugh Brundage, “Celebrating Black Memory in the Postbellum South”, in The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory, Cambridge, Mass., London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 55:

Proud Pelham in Navarro County had a long history of major Juneteenths. Every year on June 19, pigs and goats roasted over open pits or old bedsprings, while fish deep-fried in lard in big washpots hung from trees.

2005, Thad Sitton, James H. Conrad, “Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings”, in Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture; no. 15), Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 105:

Senator Taylor, with unanimous consent, asked that when the Senate adjourn, it do so in honor of "Juneteenth Day," to symbolize the struggle for freedom and equality in the United States. [...] Indeed, Juneteenth Day is much more about the future than the past. It is a day where we gather to continue the struggle. We all realize the true freedom still eludes many of us.

2009 June 17, Lena C. Taylor, “Announcements, Adjournment Honors, and Remarks under Special Privilege”, in State of Wisconsin Senate Journal: Ninety-ninth Regular Session (Wisconsin State Senate), Madison, Wis.: State Printer, →OCLC, page 218, column 2:

[M]aking Juneteenth a federal holiday is both urgent and necessary. [...] A Juneteenth federal holiday would be more than a "day off," but one filled with educational experiences about the institution and affliction of slavery, community conversations on race and reconciliation, and cultural experiences that bring the history, challenges, and contributions of Black Americans to the forefront of the nation's consciousness.

2020 June 14, Seth Cohen, “No More Excuses – It’s Time to Declare Juneteenth a Federal Holiday”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-06-14:

(US) Also more fully as Juneteenth Day: the United States national holiday commemorating the end of slavery, observed on June 19.

Abraham Lincoln
Emancipation Proclamation
General Order No. 3
Gordon Granger
Union Army

Dia De l'Emancipació

holiday celebrated in the U.S. on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery


proleptic

en-adj

proleptic (comparative more proleptic, superlative most proleptic)

more proleptic (comparative)
most proleptic (superlative)

The Julian proleptic calendar is formed by applying the rules of the Julian calendar to times before Caesar's reform, and the Julian date (JD) specifies the particular instant of a day by ending the Julian day number with the fraction of the day elapsed since the preceding Greenwich noon.

1999, Kenneth R. Lang, Astrophysical Formulae: Space, Time, Matter and Cosmology, volume II, Springer, →ISBN, page 70:

The proleptic Gregorian calendar is produced by extending the Gregorian calendar backwards to dates preceding its official introduction in 1582.

2018, Ian Chivers, Jane Sleightholme, Introduction to Programming with Fortran, Springer, →ISBN, page 535:

The .NET epoch is midnight at the start of January 1st, AD 1, although that's AD 1 in a proleptic Gregorian calendar, which refers to even more complexity we haven't talked about yet.

2022, Tomasz Lelek, Jon Skeet, Software Mistakes and Tradeoffs: How to Make Good Programming Decisions, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 155:

(of a calendar) Extrapolated to dates prior to its first adoption; of those used to adjust to or from the Julian calendar or Gregorian calendar.

proleptinen

calendar: extrapolated to dates prior to its first adoption


nativity scene

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-nativity scene.wav

In 1958, it was reported that for "the fourth year in succession, staff of four South London stations have combined to decorate the booking hall at Peckham Rye station". They installed a nativity scene, models of Father Christmas, and a sleigh driven by huskies, and Christmas trees were placed around the station.

2023 December 27, David Turner, “Silent lines...”, in RAIL, number 999, page 29:

(Christianity) A depiction—which may be pictorial, dramatic, or by means of figurines—of the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger, as described in the New Testament account.


aughts

From the sense of aught to refer to the number zero.

Dialup internet is so aughts.

Meyer and his team collected the participants in a very aughts way — through Craigslist.

2017 March 22, Tanya Basu, “Scientists figured out a big mystery about smell”, in Inverse, retrieved 2021-06-14:

He's testing out new experiments with knotting and macramé too, tying up dresses and trousers for a look that feels very aughts—and very now.

2020 October 19, Steff Yotka, “Dion Lee: Spring 2021 Ready-to-Wear”, in Vogue, retrieved 2021-06-14:

From or evoking the first through tenth years of a century (chiefly the 2000s).


Christingle

Uncertain; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, possibly from dialectal German Christkindl, Christkindle (“the Christ child, believed to deliver presents to children on Christmas Eve; the presents so brought”), from Christ (“Christ”) + Kindl, Kindle (dialectal diminutive of Kind (“child”)). The -ingle portion of the word may be a corruption of Kris Kringle (“Santa Claus”) (also derived from German Christkindl, Christ Kinde) among the German community in the United States.

I lit the three Christingles, / I lit them one by one, / On the merry, merry Christmas Eve, / When all the work was done. / I lit the three Christingles, / And they burned with a joyous ray, / But the faces that bent above them / Were fuller of light than they.

1869 January 23, “Christingles”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume VII, number 160, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., successors to Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 127, column 2:

A Christingle is an orange with a red ribbon around it. A small candle is set in the top. Four sticks, usually cocktail sticks, are placed in the orange. Pieces of fruit or small sweets are placed on the sticks. A Christingle is full of symbolism. The orange represents the world. The red ribbon is the blood of Jesus shed for everyone at his crucifixion. The candle represents Jesus, the Light of the World. The four sticks are either the four seasons or the four corners of the world. The fruit and sweets represent the food that God provides.

2002, Gordon Geddes, Jane Griffiths, “The Christmas Cycle of Festivals”, in Christian Belief and Practice: The Roman Catholic Tradition (GCSE Religious Studies for AQA), Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, →ISBN, page 92:

The Christingle service has its origins in the Moravian Church and dates back to 20th December 1747 in Mairenborn, Germany. The language used to describe a Christingle has changed over time but fundamentally a Christingle is a candle set into an orange, respectively representing the world and Jesus. A red ribbon is tied around the orange, representing the blood of Christ. Fruit and sweets on four cocktail sticks are also set in the orange, representing the four seasons and God's love in providing the fruits of the earth. […] This service was performed in local churches all over Moravia when families would gather together at Christmas time. In the first service, the children were encouraged to take their Christingle home to re-light and place in their cottage to show the light of Christ to passers by.

2015 November 25, Rachel Stevenson, “268 Years of Christingle”, in The Children's Society, archived from the original on 2015-09-05:

(Christianity) A small Christmas gift for children symbolizing Jesus Christ as the “light” of the world. A typical modern Christingle is made of an orange with sweets skewered into it, a candle inserted into the top, and a red ribbon wrapped round it.


white Christmas

en-noun

white Christmas (plural white Christmases)

“It′s like frozen thistle-down!” she cried. “I hope it will snow all day and all night until everything is covered. I never saw a white Christmas.”

1905, Annie Fellows Johnston, chapter 8, in The Little Colonel′s Christmas Vacation:

In New York City 10,000 men struggled to clear away the heavy snow which promised New Yorkers their first white Christmas in 15 years,[…].

1945 December 31, “The Big Snow”, in Life, page 23:

At Environment Canada, senior climatologist David Phillips′ standard for a white Christmas calls for at least two centimeters of snow on the ground at 7 a.m. . . . “In England, if a weather guy sees a snowflake, they call it a white Christmas.”

2008 December 18, David Bruser, “Thanks to more storms, Christmas may be white”, in Toronto Star, page A2:

A Christmas Day or Christmas Eve in which there is snowfall or ground covered with snow.


Quinquatria

An ancient Roman festival in honour of Minerva.


Twixmas

Blend of twixt (“betwixt, between”) + Christmas.

blend

Christmas / Twixmas and New Year

1998 December 9, dear..., “Super Savings - UK Hotels for Xmas”, in alt.travel (Usenet), retrieved 2023-12-27:

All of this leaves a gap for families to spend quality time together in a relaxed atmosphere – and that is where the Twixmas breaks have come in.

2014 December 28, Gareth Rubin, “Families find a haven with Twixmas breaks”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Twelve Days of Christmas
Twelve Days of Christmas

(slang) The period in between Christmas Day and New Year, typically December 27th–30th where Boxing Day is observed, and December 26th–30th elsewhere (i.e. the first six of the Twelve Days of Christmas).

romjul

the period between Christmas and New Year


calendar year

The length of time between the beginning and end of a year as marked on a calendar, such as from 0:00 January 1 to 24:00 December 31 in the Gregorian calendar.

歷年 /历年

time between 1st January and 31st December

一整年

time between corresponding dates in adjacent years


Canada Day

A Canadian statutory holiday celebrating the country's creation in 1867, celebrated each year on July 1st.


Chinese New Year

en-noun

Chinese New Year (plural Chinese New Years)

From Chinese + New Year, the latter component also matching the traditional name of the holiday, 新年 (xīnnián, “New Year”) = 新 (xīn, “new”) + 年 (nián, “year”).

An annual Chinese holiday, marking the beginning of a new year according to the traditional Chinese calendar.


Ascension

(Christianity, specifically) The believed entry of Jesus Christ into heaven after his resurrection.

(Christianity) A holiday celebrating the Ascension of Jesus, 40 days after Easter.

For a relatively unpromising scrap of land – 88 square kilometres of infertile shore and mountain – Ascension attracted a lot of interest.

2023, Martin MacInnes, In Ascension, Atlantic Books, page 453:

Ascension Island
Ascension Island#English


SXSW

From S (“south”) + X (“by”) + SW (“southwest”).

Initialism of South by Southwest: an annual festival held in Austin, Texas.


sevennight

From Middle English seven-night, sevenight, sevenyght [and other forms], from Late Old English seofeniht, seoueniht (compare seofonnihte (“seven days old; seven days long”, adjective)), from seofon (“seven”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ (“seven”)) + niht (“night; day (when computing spans of time)”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts (“night”)). Doublet of sennight.

VVhat doctrine is vvritten for us in the eighth chapter of the firſt book of Kings, I did partly ſhevv unto you, moſt honourable audience, this day ſeven-night, of that good man, father Samuel, that good Judge, hovv good a man he vvas, vvhat helpers and coadjutors he took unto him, to have his office vvell diſcharged.

1549 April 22 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “Sermon X. Being the Sixth Sermon Preached before King Edward VI. April the Tvvelfth.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC, page 175:

(attributively) Preceded by a specified day such as Sunday, today, or yesterday: a week from the specified day.


Tabernacles

A particular Christian holiday based on the Jewish one.


fiscal year

(accounting) An accounting period of one year, not necessarily coinciding with the calendar year.

regnskabsår

in accounting, including non-standard years


turn of the year

turn of the year (plural turns of the years)

By the turn of the year you should receive your tax refund.

Approximately at the end of one year and the beginning of the next.

årsskifte

end of one year and beginning of the next


Christmastime

Christmastime (countable and uncountable, plural Christmastimes)

Christmas season; Christmastide; yuletide


Friday the thirteenth

Friday the thirteenth (plural Fridays the thirteenth)

Believed to have been derived from the mass arrest of the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307.

A particular date combination that occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, and which is considered unlucky in some cultures.


Nyepi

A Hindu Balinese day of silence, fasting, and meditation that falls on Bali's Lunar New Year.


reindeer games

/ˈɹeɪndɪə ˌɡeɪmz/

From the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) by the American songwriter Johnny Marks (1909–1985): “All of the other reindeer / Used to laugh and call him names. / They never let poor Rudolph / Join in any reindeer games.”

The natives are a primitive but gregarious lot. They invited me to join them in their reindeer games, which I did.

1984, Joseph Dougherty, Digby: A Play, New York, N.Y.: Dramatists Play Service, published 1986, →OCLC, page 68:

Transfer to Washington. Transfer to Jefferson. No one at Westerburg's going to let you play their reindeer games.

1989, Daniel Waters, Heathers, spoken by Heather Chandler (Kim Walker):

His unhappiness was not due solely to the ravages of adolescence, the eccentricities of his family, exclusion from his peers' reindeer games, or even by living in the embodiment of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. It was all of those things and none of them.

2002, Terry J. Kunkel, “An Older Reflection”, in Is Wanting Enough? […], Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, part I (Lighting the Race Point Luminaria on Cape Cod), page 40:

It's tough being different in a society where conformity is so very important. Not the type of different that caused you to be picked on by the big kids in grade school because you wore glasses or didn't join the reindeer games, but the type of different that caused you to listen up in class and always do your homework.

2003 October 27, Tim Dannelly, “The Top, Home of the Lonely Brave”, in Living the American Dream, [Bloomington, Ind.]: 1stbooks, →ISBN:

When socializing it's important that you never talk business unless they bring it up. If you do, you'll find out quickly that you're no longer invited to any of the really good reindeer games. Rather, be a good listener.

2006, Christopher Duncan, “Managing Your Management”, in Dominic Shakeshaft, editor, The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (The Expert’s Voice), 2nd edition, Berkeley, Calif.: Apress, →ISBN, part II (Guerilla Tactics for Front-line Programmers), page 171:

Some fighter pilot traditions have taken on the air of reindeer games—they are nothing more than something one has to be a fighter pilot to understand.

2007, Jonathan C. Dowty, “Fighter Pilot Traditions”, in Christian Fighter Pilot is Not an Oxymoron, [U.S.A.?]: [Jonathan C. Dowty], →ISBN, part 1 (Fighter Pilot Foundations), page 23:

He found all the faddishness of what restaurant or club was in, much less what designer clothes one wore or food one ate, to be depressingly shallow and frantic. In his own private protest, he had long since consciously decided not to play their reindeer games.

2009 April, Robert Asprin, “Prologue”, in Dragons Luck, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN:

In my mind I had won. Lyndon was with me and not with Hope so whether the two of them shut me out of their reindeer games or included me, it didn't matter one iota to me.

2014, Latonya D. Young, “The Promise of Forever”, in Secrets in Love, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu Publishing, →ISBN, page 86:

I know reindeer games, and this chick is playing them.

2015, John Hornor Jacobs, chapter 9, in The Conformity (The Twelve-fingered Boy Trilogy; 3), Minneapolis, Minn.: Carolrhoda Lab, Lerner Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 55:

(US, informal) Activities which exclude outsiders.

Johnny Marks
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer


Dragon Boat Festival

Calque of Chinese 龍船節 /龙船节 (Lóngchuánjié) or 龍舟節 /龙舟节 (Lóngzhōujié), an alternative name for 端午節 /端午节 (Duānwǔjié) from the races traditionally held on that day in southern China, now popularly connected with the legend of townspeople racing to throw zongzi into the Miluo River to preserve the body of the Chu poet and statesman Qu Yuan.

calque

Behind the Dragon Boat Festival is the tragically heroic story of a famous Chinese poet and statesman of ancient times, Chu Yuan, who ended his life by jumping into a river. His reason: he was not able to save his country, which he saw heading toward destruction.

1977 June 19, T. K. Yang, “Dragon Boat Festival Honors famed statesman-poet”, in Free China Weekly, volume XVIII, number 24, Taipei, page 2:

In the folk tradition, rites, festivals, and myths began an early accretion around an apotheosized Ch'ü Yuan. The most famous of these, the Dragon Boat Festival (Tuan-wu chieh), takes place on the summer solstice, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, ostensibly to search for Ch'ü Yuan's body.

1988, Lyman P. Van Slyke, Yangtze: Nature, History and the River, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 137:

A Chinese holiday on Duanwu, the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar


menology

Partially from meno- (“month-”) + -ology (“study, account”) and partially from anglicization of Medieval Latin mēnologium and Byzantine Greek μηνολόγιον (mēnológion), q.v. Doublet of menologion, menologium, and menologe.

doublet

...in Afghanistan, we find two systems of month-names. One of these... is of Indian origin..., while the other is borrowed from the Mohammedan menology...

1907, Louis H. Gray, “On Certain Persian and Armenian Month-Names...”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 28, page 332:

The Romans themselves believed Romulus had given them a 10-month lunar calendar, but modern scholars consider the actual original state of Roman menology uncertain.

(uncommon) The study of months; the names and system of months within a given calendar.

In the Mart. of Donegal, this is the day of St. Comgall (Comhgall), placed in the Menology on the 27th June, as having no day.

1892, Richard Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales..., p. 645

The menology of the tenth century has the formula ...

1935, Stephen Langdon, Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, page 86:

The duration of the rites of mourning over nine days is... supported by references in a Standard Babylonian menology...

2003, Andrew R. George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic..., p. 53

The Menology of St Symeon mostly repeats earlier accounts but includes some small additions as well.

(often capitalized) Synonym of menologium, a monthly record, particularly in Assyriology and certain Christian contexts.

menologium

Their readings from the holy Scriptures and from the fathers, from the menologies of the church and the teachings of its principal pastors, are a great, continually swelling hymn of praise to the rule of providence and to the progressive actualization of the eternal plan of salvation.

1992, Waltraut Stein translating Edith Stein as "The Prayer of the Church", Great Catholic Writings, p. 45

The menologies of St Symeon mostly repeat earlier accounts but include some small additions as well.

(rare) The content of a menologium, a liturgical calendar or hagiography.


menologe

From French ménologe, from Latin mēnologium, q.v. Doublet of menologion, menologium, and menology.

(rare) Synonym of menologium, a monthly record, particularly in certain Christian contexts


Fat Tuesday

(Christianity) The Tuesday before the onset of Lent.


parol

From Tagalog parol, from Spanish farol (“lantern”).

An ornamental star-like Christmas lantern from the Philippines.

parol

an ornamental star-like Christmas lantern


Hallowe'eny

en-adj

Hallowe'eny (comparative Hallowe'enier, superlative Hallowe'eniest)

Hallowe'enier (comparative)
Hallowe'eniest (superlative)

The barn was dim and shadowy in the dusk of the October evening — "very Hallowe'eny," as Max said.

1913, Mormon Church, The Children's Friend:

Thus, as in Villon's "Ballade des pendus," the joy here is largely necrophilic and adolescent-spooky or Hallowe'eny.

1973, Robert Greer Cohn, The Poetry of Rimbaud:

Evocative of Hallowe'en; creepy, spooky.


Halloweeny

Halloweeny (comparative Halloweenier, superlative Halloweeniest)

Halloweenier (comparative)
Halloweeniest (superlative)

A Halloweeny incoherence cautions reading assumptions from or into things, a creative nightmare loosens the reader from adult imperative.

1999, Kenneth Lincoln, Sing with the Heart of a Bear: Fusions of Native and American Poetry, 1890-1999:

It adds a bit of a Halloweeny atmosphere to Yule. It's safe, scary fun.

2001, Estelle Daniels, Paul Tuitean, Essential Wicca:


Christmas cookie

en-noun

Christmas cookie (plural Christmas cookies)

A sugar cookie, usually cut in festive shapes, that is made and eaten at Christmas.


T-Day

(US, slang) Thanksgiving Day; Turkey Day.


tió de Nadal

/tɪˌəʊ dɛ nəˈdɒl/

Borrowed from Catalan tió de Nadal, from tió (“log”) and Nadal (“Christmas”).

Another ritual to do with trees is the tió de Nadal, the Yule log that becomes fertile and “craps” sweets and presents;

1991, Catalònia Culture, Centre Unesco de Catalunya, page 13:

A traditional Catalan Christmas character made by decorating a short log. It is “fed” with gifts each day from December 8th until Christmas, at which time it is sung to and beaten with sticks until it “poops”.

tronca de Nadal

a wooden Christmas character that is beaten until it poops gifts


bairam

Eid, either of two Muslim festivals held after Ramadan.


Chrimbo

The OED cites the first printed usage (of the variant spelling Crimbo) as being in 1928. They give John Lennon's 1963 usage in a Beatles' Fan Club Christmas single as the first recorded use of the variant form Crimble.

The thing is, The Montrose is cracker on a Thursday night, never mind that the Chrimbo lunacy season has kicked off good and proper.

"A Chrimbo pressie for me?" He peeped around the door.

2004, Amanda Boulter, Back Around the Houses:

(British, slang) Christmas, especially with regard to its more secular and commercial aspects.


Father Frost

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Father Frost.wav

Calque of Russian Дед Моро́з (Ded Moróz), literally "Grandfather Frost".

calque

In Slavic culture, a traditional Yuletide gift-bearing character.


Kallikantzaros

Borrowed from Greek καλλικάντζαρος (kallikántzaros).

bor

καλλικάντζαρος

In Greek and Cypriot culture, a traditional Yuletide gift-bearing character, resembling a goblin.


Christmas stocking

en-noun

Christmas stocking (plural Christmas stockings)

A stocking hung up by a child on Christmas Eve to be filled with gifts, ostensibly by Santa Claus.

聖誕襪 /圣诞袜

stocking hung up on Christmas Eve to be filled with gifts


Presidents' Day

Two weeks later, on Presidents' Day, while Nancy was away on a speaking trip in Texas, I decided to try again and sent Gorbachev a seven-page, handwritten letter with a set of new proposals that I hoped would bring the still-deadlocked Geneva talks off dead center while responding to his proposals.

1990, Ronald Reagan, An American Life, Pocket Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 656:

A day celebrating George Washington and other presidents, a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the third Monday of February (formerly on the 22nd of February).


Washington's Birthday

On Washington's Birthday nineteen congressmen⁷ wrote me an impressive letter. These men, some of whom I knew well, a number of whom I knew not at all, urged me, on behalf of their respective constituents, to come home and seek the Republican presidential nomination.

1963, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mandate for Change 1953-1956, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 21:

(US) A public holiday in the USA celebrated on the third Monday of February, during which the US presidents, especially George Washington, are celebrated or remembered.