This Fun Linguistic Map Shows The Word For ‘Christmas’ In Every European Country
Christmas is almost upon us (for those of us who celebrate it). Even for all the countries that do celebrate Christmas, there’s a lot of differences between how we like to spend it. From the food we like to eat as part of our big feasts, to what we like to include in our Christmas decorations (looking at you, Catalonian pooping man). There’s even a difference to what we call it, and no, it’s not necessarily just a translation of ‘Christmas’.
Reddit user, Magister_Xehanort, posted a map of Europe in a thread called “MapPorn” (lol) that detailed all the different names each EU country uses for Christmas. I don’t know about you, but I love a good map — it makes me still feel a little connected to the rest of the world, and they’re just a lot of fun.
Some of them we’re all still quite familiar with, even if we only speak English. Like Navidad (dare you not to start singing that Christmas song) and Noel. Others not so much, like ‘Weihnachten’ in parts of Germany, and Crăciun in Romania.
It’s also pretty interesting going through many of the key on the post, which discusses the origins and exact meaning of each name. For example, apparently ‘Navidad’ in Spain, ‘Natale’ in Portugal and ‘Noël’ in France all originate from the Latin word ‘Natalis/Natale’ which means Nativity. Although, as always, there’s a lot of further discussion on these origins in the comments.
Look at us, learning things on Christmas Eve.
If you need a little something else to get you into the festive mood this year, we’ve rounded up the best Chrissie light displays in Melbourne here, and Sydney here, as well as the best ones worldwide that you can stream online right from the comfort of your couch.
(Lead Image: Reddit / Magister_Xehanort)
