Prosperous Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving.  Happy Birthday.  Happy New Year’s.  Happy Valentine’s Day.  Merry Christmas.  Hmmmmm.  Why does Christmas get a special greeting?  You know, in England they just say Happy Christmas.  You can tell this from watching Harry Potter movies.  So why did we choose “merry?”  Why not just leave it at “happy?”  Well, because merry just suits Christmas better.  I could be happy that there is a new episode of “Fringe” on, but that is a different feeling than what I feel around the Christmas holidays.  On those days, I feel, well, Merry!

So maybe the better question is, why don’t other holidays get their own adjectives?  Why is every other holiday saddled with the somewhat generic and boring “happy?”  This seems unfair.  I think we should start greeting our friends and family with more appropriate phrases that more accurately reflect what the holiday is about.  And as you may have guessed, I have some suggestions.

Prosperous Thanksgiving! – Doesn’t Thanksgiving make you feel a little prosperous?  You are giving thanks for all of your many blessings, so even if you generally feel downtrodden and poor, for one day you can genuinely wish prosperity onto all of your fellow beings.  I am going to start using this one today.

Mirthful New Year’s! – If there’s one word that describes how it feels to get really drunk at a party and kiss someone random, wait, sorry, I mean have a small intimate gathering during which you watch Ryan Seacrest and a giant ball, oh, nevermind, scratch that.  Basically, when you celebrate the ending of one year and the beginning of the next, I think mirth about sums it up.  So wish people a Mirthful New Year’s to ring in 2013!

Auspicious Valentine’s Day! – Let’s be honest, either you already have someone special on Valentine’s Day, or you don’t, and this will greatly influence your feelings on the holiday.  The last thing you want to hear as you head back to your sad apartment for an expected night of Ben & Jerry’s and loneliness is for sometime to tell you to be happy about it.  But what if there were a word that someone could use to let you know that that they hoped your Valentine’s Day outlook was encouraging or favorable?  Oh wait, there is!

Blithe St. Patrick’s Day! – Blithe just means happy, but more Irish!  Try it out!

Sparkling Fourth of the July! – Sparkling is another great synonym for happy, but this one evokes bright lights, fire, and sizzling decorative sticks.  Perfect.

Sanguine Halloween! – This couldn’t be more fitting.  Sanguine means happy, but it is only a few letters away from a ton of words that mean bloody and violent!  The perfect greeting for Halloween, when the point is to have a good time, but with a bit of a dangerous edge!

Any other suggestions?  What should we say on President’s Day?  Should we tailor the birthday greeting to the person, or should we standardize that too?  Either way, I hope you all have a Prosperous Thanksgiving!