Happy Holidays=Hyvää joulua

Finnish translation: Hyvää joulua

19:05 Dec 19, 2012
English to Finnish translations [Non-PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase: Happy Holidays=Hyvää joulua
Looking for the most commonly used phrase for Happy Holidays (w/o too much religious overtone).

Hyvää joulua

Would this work?
Language Arts
United States
Local time: 03:45
Finnish translation:Hyvää joulua
Explanation:
"Hyvää joulua" is definitely the standard, but it does mean "Merry Christmas" - so technically it is more religious than the English "Happy holidays". However, there is no Finnish equivalent to "Happy holidays", i.e. such a phrase that would include all possible religions. Finland is not that multicultural yet ;)
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Tuulia Tipa
Germany
Local time: 08:45
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3Hyvää joulua
Tuulia Tipa
5 +1hauskaa joulua
Maija Haavisto


  

Answers


28 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
happy holidays=hyvää joulua
Hyvää joulua


Explanation:
"Hyvää joulua" is definitely the standard, but it does mean "Merry Christmas" - so technically it is more religious than the English "Happy holidays". However, there is no Finnish equivalent to "Happy holidays", i.e. such a phrase that would include all possible religions. Finland is not that multicultural yet ;)

Tuulia Tipa
Germany
Local time: 08:45
Works in field
Native speaker of: Finnish
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Susan Ruusunen: yep, the Finnish word 'joulu' (christmas) doesn't have the word 'Christ' in it, so it's not as religious. Also "Jouluterveiset" (christmas greetings/wishes) is common for business xmas cards, or "Hyvää joulunaikaa" (vaguely: Happy christmas time)
1 hr

agree  Jenni Tuhkanen (X)
13 hrs

agree  Teppo Ojansuu: yes its more happy than hilarious christmas
8 days
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
happy holidays=hyvää joulua
hauskaa joulua


Explanation:
Hauskaa joulua is nowadays perhaps more popular than hyvää joulua (and a fairly literal translation of "merry Christmas", while hyvää joulua is more like "good Christmas". Especially if the audience is young, I would say hauskaa joulua, but it is by no means inappropriate or colloquial with the older population, either. Indeed it is not possible to do wish for "happy holidays" or "season's greetings" in Finnish.

Maija Haavisto
Netherlands
Local time: 08:45
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FinnishFinnish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  finnword1: Hyvää joulua or hauskaa joulua will do just fine. The fact that the month of December is called joulukuu will assure that the the word joulu will prevail.
4 hrs
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