Whether you’re enjoying some sunny Mediterranean weather or skiing this winter, or you just want to surprise a friend by sending them a Christmas card in their language, here are all the European Christmas greetings you could need.
This colorful map of Europe was made by Jakub Marian, a Czech linguist who makes fun infographic maps in addition to having written a line of textbooks. If you like this Christmas map, you can check out his other maps that you can use all year long, like how European languages say “I love you”. His map of tea may surprise you with its simplicity – it looks like the world’s most popular drink is the one thing that most of us are in agreement about.
More info: Books and Maps by Jakub Marian
This map shows how Europe says Merry Christmas
The colors on the map show the etymological roots of each phrase: for example, red represents Romance languages that use a Latin-based word for the event of the birth of Christ, as well as some non-Romance languages that get their Christmas greetings as loanwords from these languages. You can also see that up north, highlighted in green, people get their word for Christmas from the Old Norse pagan festival jól (we have this word in English as Yule!)
Maybe you didn’t know that Christmas is celebrated differently all over Europe, and in many places, it’s not over yet. Orthodox Christians in Russia, Ukraine, and parts of the Balkans will be celebrating the Nativity on January 7th, due to a difference in the ceremonial calendar that they use, and get national holidays to match.
However, in countries that spent most of the 20th century under Soviet control, suppression of religion prevented celebrating Christmas, which meant that Christmas celebrations were largely rebranded and merged with New Year’s Eve. As a result, many cultures as you go east celebrate New Year’s Eve more heavily than Christmas to this day, often mixing imagery from the two holidays.
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