“God rest ye merry,” is a phrase from medieval English. It means… approximately… “God grant you peace and happiness” which is a charming thing to say. Shakespeare used it in his 1599 play As you like it.
The carol that starts off that way, has survived that long, so long, that we now interpret ‘merry’ to be an adjective modifying the subsequent noun ‘Gentlemen’ instead of a noun in its own right, so when Dickens recorded it in his 1834 Christmas Carol, he went with the (more sensible to the Victorian ear) lyrics “God bless you merry gentlemen.”
But what I really like is the (now standard) last lyric of the chorus “Tidings of comfort and joy”
Tidings is a noun… it means news, information or intelligence.
So… what a great thing to wish someone “I wish you news of comfort and joy.”
And in the spirit of what all the atheists on this forum like to argue: that there’s nothing special about Christianity telling people to bring lightness, comfort and charm into the world, or some kind of spiritual monopoly… my question for you is:
How have you brought comfort and joy to someone on our forum today?
Sir Tainley