It occurred to me, yesterday, while listening to a Christmas special on the radio*

[capri0mni]

It struck me as intriguing that, in U.S. American vernacular, we only ever use "merry" for Christmas greetings, and "happy" for everything else. I've never come across the sentiment "Merry Birthday," for example.

So, of course, I had to go check out the word at

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] <iframe>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

It struck me as intriguing that, in U.S. American vernacular, we only ever use "merry" for Christmas greetings, and "happy" for everything else. I've never come across the sentiment "Merry Birthday," for example.

So, of course, I had to go check out the word at <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&amp;search=merry&amp;searchmode=term&quot;&gt;Etymology Online: &quot;Merry&quot;&lt;/a&gt;; apparently, it originally meant &quot;brief,&quot; and that &quot;making merry&quot; was to make time fly by having fun...

*Footnote-- this was one of the merrier songs (or a version thereof) on the show" s="s" playlist:="playlist:" <iframe="&lt;iframe" width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6i-1eMlY2yE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>