Ireland

Little Christmas

Niall O'Donnell 18 Comments

In most Christian traditions, today is the last day of Christmas. The most common name for this day is The Epiphany (meaning a moment of sudden realisation or revelation). It’s so called because it was believed to be the day that Jesus revealed his divinity, when the three magi arrived to see him.

As well as religious celebrations, the day is marked in different ways around the world. If you’re lucky enough to be Spanish or Italian, you might get extra gifts on 5th or 6th January. Despite the various traditions throughout Continental Europe though, in the UK and Ireland, we don’t do too much to celebrate the end of Christmas, unless you count taking down the tree and decorations. For most people here, the Christmas period lasts until New Year’s Day, and then life for most people goes back to normal. At least when I was a child the school holidays didn’t end until the 6th (although that changed a few years ago) and I could still enjoy the first few days of January playing with my new toys, though there was always a creeping dread as it got closer to going-back-to-school time.

In the past though, the Epiphany was quite a big deal. Continue reading →

Merry Christmas!

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

Just a quick post for today, unsurprisingly about the meaning of the word Christmas. You can probably guess that it is of course a combination of the words Christ and Mass. It’s a shortening of Christ’s Mass, which makes sense as a name for the day, and was first recorded in the 11th century. Linguistically, there’s not much else interesting about it, as its meaning is so opaque. I suppose there’s the fact that we use on before special days (on Christmas Day), and at for longer periods of celebration (at Christmas). And there’s Xmas! Even though it’s often considered a blasphemous, secular, lazy contraction of the word, it actually has a religious background. The X comes from the Greek letter chi, which in English is Christ, so it’s basically identical to Christmas.

But yeah, Mass! I remember, like many an Irish child in the 80s and 90s, thinking about when I should get mass: would I get Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and enjoy the pleasure of waking up on Christmas morning knowing I didn’t have to get Mass, and could spend the day playing with my new toys.

I always tried to get Midnight Mass, but sometimes I was just far too comfortable at home on Christmas Eve, and I’d leave it for the morning, which I’d always regret, although Mass on Christmas Day was always okay, because everyone was in a good mood, and you knew the Gospel story would be a good one. Midnight Mass could be great though, it always seemed to have a really special atmosphere, which even the tipsy men fresh from the pub standing at the back seemed to appreciate. Even when I started to become less religious, I’d still sometimes enjoy Midnight Mass.

I only very occasionally find myself at Mass these days. It’s interesting how I still remember lots of the responses, and find myself automatically reciting them before I realise I have. Although no-one seems to remember when to kneel anymore, so it seems everyone just sits and stands.

So whether you’re going to Mass or not, or spending Christmas in any of the other infinite ways to spend it, (or not even celebrating Christmas, but still hopefully having a nice end-of-year), I hope you have a merry one!

Winter Solstice

Niall O'Donnell 7 Comments

Today is the Winter Solstice, or Midwinter, here in the Northern Hemisphere; the shortest day (or, if you prefer, the longest night) of the year.

The word solstice comes from the Latin solstitium, meaning point at which the sun seems to stand still. This meaning was probably inspired more by the Summer Solstice, in which the sun seems to hang around all day, especially up here on the 53rd parallel where it gets dark at about 11.30pm. But at the Winter Solstice, the sun probably seemed to move across the sky far too quickly. Continue reading →

A Bit of a Do

Niall O'Donnell 8 Comments

I’ll be getting ready for my office Christmas party soon.

And by getting ready I mean probably changing my clothes.

it reminded me of a now probably old-fashioned Irishism, which is to refer to any kind of social gathering on a larger scale and more  than simply going to the pub as a do.

Sorry, I can’t go out tonight, we’re having our work Christmas do.

We’re having a bit of a do next week, if you want to come.

I’ve been invited to the mass, but I won’t be able to make it, so I’m just going to the evening do. Were you at their engagement do? Continue reading →

Cultural Cringe

Niall O'Donnell 27 Comments

Have you ever heard one of your compatriots say something and thought to yourself, embarrassed, Oh my God, that’s so Irish/American/Indian/English etc? If so, you may be suffering from cultural cringe.

Oxford English Dictionary: The view that one’s own national culture is inferior to the cultures of other countries

Coined by Australian writer A.A Phillips in the 1950s, the term is often discussed in reference to (post)colonial societies, to demonstrate how a culture can internalise its colonisers’ view of it as inferior. Cultural cringe can often manifest itself as a reaction against the language or dialect of one’s culture. A common example would be someone who hates to hear certain colloquial terms from their region. Have you ever changed your accent, to avoid it’s “regional” sound? Made sure to pronounce your g’s, when perhaps your parents didn’t? Sometimes it’s a pragmatic decision to fit in in a new environment, sometimes it’s an unconscious, gradual process, but sometimes it’s because you don’t want people to know where you’re from, or at least to think you’re a stereotypical representative of there. Continue reading →

Surnames

Niall O'Donnell 25 Comments

Have you ever thought about your surname? Do you know where it comes from, what it means? Many English-language surnames are derived from jobs: Continue reading →

How do You be Doing?

Niall O'Donnell 18 Comments

When does English sound like jazz?

When you’re Irish.

When I was a younger man I thought nothing of talking about my habits and routines in such terms:

I do be going to the park regularly.

I do be often working on Saturdays. 

If I were to translate that into more standard English, it would be:

I go to the park regularly.

I often work on Saturdays.

These latter sentences are in the present simple tense, which we use to talk about routines, habits, and general truths. So why would I choose a more convoluted form instead of something more… simple? Well, you can’t change where you’re born. Such a structure (I do be +-ing), while not so common anymore, was a common part of Irish English (or Hiberno-English). Continue reading →