メリー クリスマス = “Merry Christmas” in Japanese
Merry Christmas in Japanese -> メリー クリスマス This is phonetic, katakana spelling. You see it all over Japan During December.
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Zenta Claus: Japan’s Patron Saint of “Buy Nothing Day” (無買日). Passively fighting Christmas commercialism.
Thus, as a service to those Middle School teachers, party planners and the idol curious out there, I offer the title of this post and, once again, here provide “Merry Christmas” in Japanese:
メリークリスマス
This “Merry Christmas” (pron: Mehri Kurisumasu) is written in Katakana, one of the three writing systems used in Japanese. Katakana is used for foreign words and phrases, onomatopoeia, and italics.
If you want to say “Happy Christmas”, here it is in Katakana:
ハピークリスマス
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Goh・yukkuri de . . .
Your host.
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Well, I think that in Japanese メリークリスマス is far more common (and more correct), however some people I have met tend to use “Happy Christmas” when speaking to foreigners.
There are also differences in saying thanksgiving->
勤労感謝の日(kinro kansha no hi) is the Japanese form of Thanksgiving (similar to our labor day I guess). And, 感謝祭 (kansha sai) is the American form of thanksgiving (eating turkeys, etc.).
The difference in the kanji is a festival for thanks in the latter, whereas the former indicates just a day of giving gratitude and thanks.
Pramod,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, of course “Merry Christmas” (メリークリスマス) is more common, which is why I feature it. However, some Brits (I’m an American) insist on “Happy Christmas” and want(ed) to know how to write it in Japanese (i.e., in katakana), thus I accommodated them.
That’s interesting, what you say about “感謝祭”. I’ve never heard that before. As The-Last-Thursday-in-November Thanksgiving celebrating the Pilgrims and such is a uniquely American holiday (not talking about a day or festival to generally give thanks . . . which is found in most every culture, of course), then I’ve only heard my Japanese friends and colleagues say, “Happy Thanksgiving” referring to that. It’s like if an English speaker asks “How do you say ‘sumo’ in English?” or “How do you say ‘kabuki’ in English?” — sumo is sumo, kabuki is kabuki, and, “Happy Thanksgiving”, 日本語で, is ハッピーサンクスギビング.
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R
this rely helped me with spelling this for my grandmother cause she is japanese.
Very glad to have helped. My best to you, your family and especially you Obah-chan.