Merry Christmas?, How to say Merry Christmas in Gaelic

Can anyone out there tell me how to say Merry Christmas in Irish? Thanks

Good Question Outlander,

I went back to see if it had been Posted in here from last year, but I could not find any reference to it.

I would kind of like to know that myself.

Here it is - one of my THREE (only) Irish sentences!!!

Happy Christmas to you is....

Nollaig Shona duit

Pronounced (I learned it phonetically when I was a teenager and visited Ireland a lot)... Nullug hunna gwitch.

Thank you Catriona.

I plan to use it a lot this year.

Thanks for your help! I wanted to put it on the UNICEF Christmas cards I bought. They're multilingual as you may know. But I wanted to add some languages from my background. I'm also adding Polish and Ukrainian! So you can see I'm quite a mix! Carol

WOW - that's a great mix in your genealogy! All those national identities to look into and to learn about

I've got absolutely nothing else but Scottish..... certainly as far back as records begin in my family which is about the 1600s! But lots of my friends at school had Irish background - and indeed one of my best friends (and still is today) was Irish. Her family moved to Scotland when she was about 14 or so. I used to spend summers at their second home in Donegal. I also spent 2 Christmases there... a magical place.

I really envy you being able to go so far back in your family history! My grandparents were immigrants. My Ukrainian/Polish grandparents couldn't speak English. My Irish Granny didn't read or write very well.She came from Northern Ireland. My Ukrainian Grandmother died before I was born. The thing was they just didn't speak about their life in the old country. They came to Canada to start a new life and left the old one behind. Such a shame really. I never got to learn Polish or Ukrainian. I'm trying to learn some Ukrainian now,on my own,at the ripe old age of 49! I doubt I'll get too far,but it's fun! Polish is just impossible! I'm also trying to learn some Scottish Gaelic. I wanted to learn Irish Gaelic,but I came across some fun lessons on Scottish Internet Radio and started with those. My problem, as I'm sure you can figure out, is that the two languages are not the same. I had no idea. Oh well,live and learn. That's the main thing.

I kindof have the idea of learning one form of Gaelic, and using it as a stepping stone to learn the other. Sure the languages have their diffrences, but I'm banking on them being similar enough to complement each other and for one to help in learning the other.

You could be right. I hope so anyway. But I've never considered myself very good with languages. After all I was born and raised in Quebec and still can't speak French very well. Here that's pretty much a mortal sin!!

That can be said about many francophones including our soon to be ex-prime minister.

I believe if I remember correctly that the two can be understood basically by the other. But Scottish and Welsh From what I am to understand is impossible to speak native tounges to one another and understand. The languages evolved in different ways and with the 400 yr seperation due to Hadrians wall..... They are now two totally different languages all together....

I have looked at the Welsh language..it made me shudder.....TOUGH!

At least Northern Ireland and Scotland... Because of the possible trade by sea... it's only about 70 miles between N. Ireland and Scotland....

Hey Jason,

Isn't "barddas" basically a Welsh word?

That is what the title of the text about Welsh Druidism, and Bardism was/is called. So technically yes. It would be associated with being a Welsh word.
Here is a link to a bit of that book and more on welsh paganism, and so on....

http://www.tylwythteg.com/Barddas/barddas.html

Oh I wish I could visit Ireland during the Christmas season! You are fortunate to have been able to visit often... I've been only once, but it was for an entire week and the memories are etched into my consciousness forever. May I ask where you visited? I was in the south, having landed in Dun Laoighaire & headed west to Ennis, then spent the following week traveling along the coast down to Kerry and back up to Dun Laoghaire

Regarding Irish language, I remember as we travelled our friends found for us a local radio station broadcasting in Irish exclusively... what a beautiful sound, it was captivating!