Keep the 'holy' in 'holiday'

As our nation weighs in on the controversy of whether to wish people a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays,” I would like to point out that the word “holiday” originated from the word “holyday.”

When looking up the word “holiday” in Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, one is directed to the word “holyday” in order to find the definition.

The first definition of that word is: “a day set apart for commemorating some important event in history; a festival intended to celebrate some event deemed auspicious to the welfare of a nation; particularly an anniversary festival, devoted to religious solemnities; as Christmas holydays.”

Perhaps when the anti-Christmas people find out that holiday is really “holyday,” they will be forced to wish people a “happy day!”

As for our family, as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we wish you a very merry Christmas… for it is, indeed, a blessed, holy day.

And to our Jewish friends, we wish you a very happy Hanukkah, for it also is a blessed, holy day.

Let’s keep the “holy” in “holiday!”

Mary Ann Craven