Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 92.
The word origin today is Yuletide.
Okay.
Yuletide basically means Christmas season.
Okay.
Let's look at the note here.
Yuletide is an old word that is still often heard a lot around Christmastime.
It is also mentioned in a number of Christmas songs and sometimes seen written on Christmas
decorations.
I can remember as a kid thinking what is this Yuletide ? What is this about ? Because you
know, they don't often explain that to you when you are a kid.
Yuletide ? Where did Yuletide come from ? All right.
Let's continue.
The term basically means the Christmas season.
But some dictionaries vary about the exact time.
It was originally connected to the Winter solstice.
which could begin around December 21.
So the 21st, 22nd that's is always around the shortest day of the year is.
That is the winter solstice.
And will definitely include Christmas and the period right up to Jan. 1.
That is definitely usually part of it. But some may go as far as January 6.
So some dictionaries vary like if you look up Yuletide they may very slightly on when
they say that Christmas week or Christmas season is.
Okay.
Let's continue.
The word Yule come from old English and is dated all the way back to the 15th century.
Tide is an old word referring to a certain period of time.
I think I kind of covered this in one of the ones like when we were talking about Like
you know, tide waits for no man.
Basically.
that sort of proverb.
where we found out that the tide.
Like there is evening tide you know it had something to do with a time period originally.
Anyway, let's continue.
Originally Yuletide was to celebrate the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the
year and its customs of decorating an evergreen tree.
So you know , it is connected to the Christmas tree and exchanging gifts was originally done
to symbolize the passing from one year to another.
These customs have combined with the celebration of Christmas and Christ's birth and they are
a very important part of it now.
So it is almost hard to separate the two because everybody thinks of Christmas you with Christ's
birthday , they think of a Christmas tree, a star on top. and you know, with the gifts
around it . So that is a big part of Christmas.
All right . Let's continue.
Okay. In the song" Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
So if you recognize that title . There is a line.
"have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Make the Yuletide gay.
Yeah. So this is one of the ones in which it is in the song.
Again Yuletide here just means Christmas season.
And I have told you this in a few other videos.
A while ago, gay is a very old word and it used to just mean happy.
So of course when they say make the Yuletide gay , it has absolutely nothing to do with
homosexuality.
It means make the Christmas season happy.
Have a happy Christmas season.
Okay good.
And let's continue here.
In the song " Deck the Halls."
"Another very big Christmas carol.
There is a line " don we now our gay apparel.
Okay . Don means wear.
Here the word gay comes up again.
Also just meaning happy.
Happy, apparel was clothes.
We still use that word in a very formal sense.
In regard to business for clothes.
Troll the ancient Yuletide carol . You know like follow.
The ancient Yul tide . The Christmas season.
Follow along with the carols.
The Christmas carols.
Okay b.
So here's just some examples.
A couple of example of how you will see it pop up in songs.
An d it pops up in a number of other Christmas songs too.
As well as the decorations I mentioned before . Anyway, I hope you got it.
I hope you found it informative.
Thank you for your time.