Holidays

Word histories for festivals through the year. Each page is linked from the front page in the days around its holiday, but all of them can be read at any time.

• 🧧 Chinese New Year January or February Tea, ketchup, kowtow and tycoon, and the names of the twelve zodiac animals.
• 💌 Valentine’s Day 14 February Valentine, romance, flirt and honeymoon, and why fond once meant foolish.
• 💜 International Women’s Day 8 March Woman, lady and queen, the words of the suffrage campaigns, and words named after women.
• 🌱 Nowruz The spring equinox, 20 or 21 March Paradise, bazaar and caravan, and how Persian shāh gave English chess, check and cheque.
• 🌙 Ramadan Moves through the year with the lunar calendar Crescent, Eid and minaret, sugar and coffee, and the algebra and zero English learned from Arabic.
• 🐣 Easter March or April Easter, Lent, carnival and daffodil, and an egg hunt through oval, cockney and ovation.
• 🛠️ Labour Day 1 May Labour, wage and robot, strike, picket and boycott, and the weekend we clock off for.
• 🌼 Midsommar Late June Maypole, smorgasbord and aquavit, and the everyday English words from Old Norse.
• 🎃 Halloween 31 October Ghost, witch, vampire and zombie, and everyday words like mortgage with morbid origins.
• 🪔 Diwali On now October or November Karma, avatar and juggernaut, bungalows and shampoo, and English words with Sanskrit cousins.
• 🕎 Hanukkah November or December Menorah, dreidel and latke, Yiddish words like schmooze, and jubilee and shibboleth.
• 🎄 Christmas 25 December Yule, carol, wassail and mistletoe, and everyday words like gift and tinsel.