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In the United States, "Happy Holidays" (along with the similarly generalized "Season's Greetings") has become the most common holiday greeting in the public sphere within the past decade,[citation needed] such as department stores, public schools and greeting cards. Its use is generally confined to the period between United States Thanksgiving and New Year's. American use of the term "Happy Holidays" to replace "Merry Christmas" dates back at least to the 1970s. Use of the term may have originated with the Irving Berlin song "Happy Holidays" (released in 1942 and included in the film Holiday Inn).
In the United States, it can have several variations and meanings:
As "Happy Holiday", an English translation of the Hebrew Hag Sameach greeting on Passover, Sukkot, and Shavuot.
As "Happy Holiday", a substitution for "Merry Christmas".
As "Happy Holidays", a collective and inclusive wish for the period encompassing Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Winter solstice, Christmas Day (The Nativity of the Lord), Boxing Day (St. Stephen's Day), the New Year and Epiphany.
As "Happy Holidays", a shortened form of the greeting "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
Advocates claim that "Happy Holidays" is an 'inclusive' greeting that is not intended as an attack on Christianity or other religions, but is rather a response to the reality of a growing non-Christian population.
Critics of "Happy Holidays" generally claim it is a secular neologism. The greeting may be deemed materialistic, consumerist, atheistic, indifferentist, agnostic, politically correct, and/or anti-Christian. It may be associated with the "War on Christmas," with the intent of deliberately diminishing the centrality of Christianity and advancing secularism.[7]
Some Christians, concerned that the 20th-century conflation of St. Nicholas Day (December 6), Christmas (December 25), and Epiphany (January 6) has subsumed the meaning of Christmas itself, have taken to using "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" throughout the season, reserving "Merry Christmas" for December 25.
Thankyou : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_greetings
