Humbug Day: Where does the phrase come from and why do we celebrate it on Dec. 21?
Not everyone is a fan of Christmas. Some folk hate it - including one cantankerous character from a classic Charles Dickens’ novel.
Christmas is a time to relax, forget about work and the hustle and bustle of daily life and spend quality time with family and those we love. At least that’s the general idea. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way and some folk have a strong dislike of the festive season.
It’s easy to understand why some people hate Christmas - it’s usually cold and dark (in the northern hemisphere), then there’s the stress of making sure everything goes to plan (sending letters, shopping for food and presents, organizing who’s coming for dinner on Christmas Day and who isn’t...). The shopping part is more stressful than ever, between finding a place to park the car, dodging other shoppers (especially if you get nervous in large crowds), and finding what you want on the shelves - if anything’s still there close to Christmas Eve...
And in recent years, Christmas, like most other things, has become too corporate, too much about materialism and money.
Miserable banker
Some people just don’t like the fuss, or feel like being sociable. One such example was Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean, stingy and selfish fictitious character from Charles Dickens’ timeless novel, A Christmas Carol.
It was the miserly Scrooge, who would miserably spit the phrase “Bah, Humbug!” in Dickens’ tale - an expression of contempt, whenever anyone tried to say something positive or nice. Scooge wasn’t having any of it.
We first hear it when Fred, Scrooge’s nephew and last living relative Fred, bursts into the counting house and cheerily exclaims: “A Merry Christmas uncle! God save you!”. He is met with the usual, curt reply - “Bah, Humbug!”
The word “humbug” first appeared in print in England during the early 1750s, although its origins are unknown and believed to be much older. There are several theories, what we do know that its has negative connotations, and relates to anything that is false, pretentious or designed to deceive.
Happy Humbug Day!
Which is why December 21 (since 1996) has become Humbug Day - a day when all Christmas-hating moaning Minnies, grinches, and curmudgeons are free to spend the whole day sulking, tutting with contempt or just generally complaining about the holiday season. “Bah, Humbug!”
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