Joe Issa Wishes Merry Christmas in Several Languages

With many countries such as the Caribbean battered by hurricanes and other bad weather-systems this year, Joe Issa who founded the Cool Group of over 50 companies that are being leveraged globally, is wishing the international community Merry Christmas in their own languages, including English, French, and Spanish.

Picture: Jakub Marian

“I hope they all have an enjoyable Christmas to make up for the sufferings they may have endured this year; they deserve it…I say Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad.

“These are the most internationally recognised Christmas greetings I know of but our world has many more that need to be embraced, especially those countries with which we trade and have diplomatic relations.

“Several of their nationalities may be living, working and investing in Jamaica, so I think it’s a good idea if we can wish them Merry Christmas in their own language,” said Issa, citing the Dutch, German, Italian, Chinese and Indian, among others.

Issa was commenting on an article which highlighted the many ways in which Merry Christmas can be said other that English, but agreed that “no matter what language you speak, the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ warms the heart”.

The article said although the English, French and Spanish ways of saying the greeting are fairly well known, one might be interested in learning how to say it in Portuguese, Italian or German this year.

But “thankfully,” it said, “you don’t need to consult a dictionary or a translation app – a map can do the job for you…Cartographer Jakub Marian has created a unique map that details how people greet each other at Christmas across the continent.”

Just in case one prefers to read the languages in list form, the article provided onr with all of those which Jakub included on the map.

The list includes Spanish: Feliz Navidad, Albanian: Gëzuar Krishtlindjet, Basque: Eguberri on, Belarusian: з Калядамі or з Божым Нараджэннем, Breton: Nedeleg laouen, Bulgarian: Весела Коледа or Честито Рождество Христово, Catalan: Bon Nadal, Croatian: Sretan Božić, Czech: Veselé Vánoce, Danish God jul or Glædelig jul, Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest, English: Merry Christmas or Happy Christmas, Estonian: Häid jõule, Finnish: Hyvää joulua, Galician: Bo Nadal, German: Fröhliche Weihnachten or Frohe Weihnachten, Greek: Καλά Χριστούγεννα, Hungarian: Boldog karácsonyt, Icelandic: Gleðileg jól, Irish: Nollaig Shona + Dhuit (singular) or Daoibh (plural), Italian: Buon Natale, Latvian: Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus, Lithuanian: Linksmų Kalėdų, Luxembourgish: Schéine Chrëschtdag, Macedonian: Среќен Божиќ or Христос се роди, Maltese: il-Milied it-Tajjeb, Norwegian: God jul, Northern Sami: Buorre juovla, Romanian: Crăciun fericit, Occitan: Bon Nadal, Polish: Wesołych Świąt (Bożego Narodzenia), Portuguese: Feliz Natal, Russian: с Рождеством (Христовым), Scottish Gaelic: Nollaig Chridheil, Serbian: Srećan Božić or Hristos se rodi, Sardinian: Bona Pasca de Nadale, Slovak: Veselé Vianoce, Slovene: Vesel božič, Swedish: God jul, Ukrainian: з Різдвом (Христовим), and Welsh: Nadolig Llawen.