# Bulgarian, Serbian (BCS), Macedonian:  Hristos se rodi, Христос се роди



## Tagarela

Hi,

I saw this phrase, *Hristos se rodi*, greeting here, it is the third greeting counting from the bottom. 

If I am not mistaken, it means _Christ gets born/is borning_. Which language is that? Croatian? I've saw a similar greeting in Russian once, I'm not sure if for Christmas or for Eastern - I guess that it was "Christ is alive" something like that. 

I'd be glad to learn other Christian greetings in any Slavic language else than the standard _Merry Christmas_.

Good bye.:


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## Kanes

Its Bulgarian, it means Christ got born. Its for Christmas.


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## Duya

...or Serbian. (That particular greeting is not used in Croatian).


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## echo chamber

...or Macedonian. In Cyrillic it would be Христос се роди.


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## echo chamber

Tagarela said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> I'd be glad to learn other Christian greetings in any Slavic language else than the standard _Merry Christmas_.



It is Среќен Божиќ (Srekjen Bozhikj) in Macedonian, but people always tend to greet each other on this day by saying: _-Hristos se rodi_! (Hristos was born!), and the other person responds:_ -Vistina se rodi._ (He was really born/He was born indeed).


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## dudasd

One of the additional Christmas greetings is _Мир на земљи, добра воља међу људима_. (This is Serbian version, but exists in other Slavic languages as well.) It means: _(May be) peace on Earth, and good will between/amongst people._

In Serbia, we use to greet each others with _Христос се роди_ from Christmas to Twelth Night (that is, from January the 7th to January the 19th, because our church holds to the old, Julian calendar). So it is a nice greeting even if it's belated. 

Amongst Catholics in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, you'll hear "Čestit Božić", which is similar to "Merry Christmass", though it has a wider meaning which I don't know how to express in English. The old meaning was something like "Honoured Christmass".


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## iobyo

echo chamber said:


> _Vistina se rodi._ (He was really born/He was born indeed).



While this is very common, I think _*на*вистина се роди_ (_*na*vistina se rodi_) is more correct (noun vs adverb).


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## echo chamber

iobyo said:


> While this is very common, I think _*на*вистина се роди_ (_*na*vistina se rodi_) is more correct (noun vs adverb).



Yes, true, you are right. However, many people still use "vistina" instead of "navistina". Even in everyday speech, not only regarding this phrase.


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## phosphore

Tagarela said:


> Hi,
> I'd be glad to learn other Christian greetings in any Slavic language else than the standard _Merry Christmas_.


 
In Serbian, "Merry Christmas" would be "srećan božić" /sretɕɐn bɔʒitɕ/

But on Christmas day people would rather say, instead of "hello" or "good morning", "Hristos se rodi" /xristɔs se ɾɔdi/ which means "Christ got born", and the usual answer would be "vaistinu se rodi" /vaistinu se ɾɔdi/ which means something like "Sure he did" or "He really did". Although that word "vaistinu" is no longer in use, if you heard it sometimes, it would be "uistinu".


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## Kanes

In Bulgarian it is not very comon to say Hristos se rodi as well, most often will hear vesela koleda (happy christmas) as greeting.


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## iobyo

The way I see it is _среќен/честит божиќ/празник_ are used more so as generic greetings on the 25th by those who aren't particularly religious or who don't want to give a religious overtone (especially on greeting cards).

_Христос се роди/навистина се роди_ is more common during church services or when greeting neighbors and other churchgoers whom you may or may not know personally. I would only ever use this greeting during the period of twelve days of Orthodox Christmas (old calendar) as dudasd pointed out.

As dudasd also mentioned, there are several set phrases used by the Orthodox Christians: "_мир на Земјата и добра волја кон луѓетo_" which I believe is a Bible quotation, and "_мир Божји_" which usually accompanies _Христос се роди._


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## Christo Tamarin

The phrases *Christos se rodi (Христос се роди/Навистина се роди) *follow the pattern of Easter greetings (Христос въскресе/Наистина въскресе). These phrases are not so common.

The pattern *Buon natale* is found in the phrase: *Sreten bozic* (in the west) and *Весела Коледа* (in the east).

Actually, the greeting should be the quotation [Luke 2:14].

Greek original: *δόξα εν υψίστοις θεώ καί επί γής ειρήνη εν ανθρώποις ευδοκίας*.

Bulgarian: *Слава във висините Богу, и на Земята мир, между човеците благоволение!*

English: *Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! *


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## Sasa163

Its Serbian, thats what we say for our Christmas.


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## Awwal12

In Russian, the greeting "Merry Christmas" would be "С Рождеством (Христовым)!"
/s Rozhdestv*o*m (Khrist*o*vym)/
[s ɾəʐdʲɪstv'om (xɾʲɪst'ovəm)]
the most literally translation would be "with Nativity (Christ's)". 

Another variants are, of course, also possible (including more extended ones), but this seems to be the most typical variant.


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## Adnyre

These traditional greetings are widely used  here in Western Ukraine. Here they are:

Christmas: "Христос народився!" (in the local dialect it would be rather "Христос ся рождає!") - "Славімо його!" (loc. "Славити його!")

Epiphany: (loc.) "Христос ся хрещає!" - "В ріці Йордані!"

Easter: "Христос воскрес!" - "Воїстину воскрес!"

Religious people also use "Слава Ісусу Христу!" as an everyday greeting. You should answer: "Слава навіки Богу!"


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## DarkChild

It's a grammatically correct sentence in Bulgarian but no one says that.


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## Denitsa.Br

I think these traditional fraces "Jesus revive to death!" and the anwer "He really did!" are used only by orthodox christians. (Easter)
The frace "Христос се роди" means "Jesus was born". (Christmas)


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## mugibil

In Bulgarian at least, it is very usual to say "Христос воскресе!" "Christ has been resurrected!" at Easter, but I have never heard "Христос се роди!" "Christ has been born!" at Christmas. As I understand from the above posts, Macedonians commonly say both. So the intended languages may have been Macedonian or Serbian, but probably not Bulgarian.


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## dacheff

I have definitely not heard of "Христос се роди" / "Hristos se rodi" (which is not "Hristos was born", but "Jesus/Christ was born"  ). That follows the pattern from the Easter greeting "Христос воскресе" with answer "Воистина воскресе" - "Jesus revived" - "Indeed he revived" (and not _*has been resurrected/revived*_ as that requires another's intervention, which is not mentioned in the orthodox greeting). Thats old-bulgarian/church-slavic, the present-day greeting should sound "Христос възкръсна" - "Наистина възкръсна". However no one uses the last one, as still "Христос воскресе" - "Воистина воскресе" ("Hristos voskrese" - "Voistina voskrese") is being said.
And for Christmas - "Весела Коледа" ("Vesela Koleda") with the meaning of "Merry Christmas" should be enough.


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## Angelo di fuoco

dacheff said:


> I have definitely not heard of "Христос се роди" / "Hristos se rodi" (which is not "Hristos was born", but "Jesus/Christ was born"  ). That follows the pattern from the Easter greeting "Христос воскресе" with answer "Воистина воскресе" - "Jesus revived" - "Indeed he revived" (and not _*has been resurrected/revived*_ as that requires another's intervention, which is not mentioned in the orthodox greeting). Thats old-bulgarian/church-slavic, the present-day greeting should sound "Христос възкръсна" - "Наистина възкръсна". However no one uses the last one, as still "Христос воскресе" - "Воистина воскресе" ("Hristos voskrese" - "Voistina voskrese") is being said.
> And for Christmas - "Весела Коледа" ("Vesela Koleda") with the meaning of "Merry Christmas" should be enough.



In Russian it's almost the same grreeting for Easter, only that we say воистин*у*, which is the accusative case, nowadays lost in Bulgarian.


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## dacheff

Angelo di fuoco said:


> In Russian it's almost the same grreeting for Easter, only that we say воистин*у*, which is the accusative case, nowadays lost in Bulgarian.



Yep, all of the cases in bulgarian no more exist. We have only case-forms now e.g. - _кой - кого - кому_, which refers to the german _wer - wen - wem_ (thats just for example).


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## marco_2

In Poland we just say *Wesołych Świąt, *both for Christmas and Easter.


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## aleksk

Just a further explanation from me on this subject. 

The expression does not mean "Christ was born" (2000 years ago), as many here suggested, but rather "Christ is born", that is, it assumes an immediate past context. It is supposed to bring the feeling of a news, the excitement that an extraordinary news so spectacular can bring, that it must be the first thing you will tell when you meet someone you know, your neighbour, your friend or even someone you don't know, but you like to share the good news. That's why we don't say Hello or Good morning on Christmas, but rather Christ is born. An ordinary greeting would only detract from the importance of the news. 

Just to give a silly example so that people of other languages understand the greeting better. Let's say a space ship from another planet suddenly lands on Earth. If you just happened to witness the landing (alongside with other people) you would be so excited that in the immediate aftermath you would run around telling people "A space ship has landed" as the first thing, whether you know them or not. The people that you have told the news will spread the news further with the same urgency (in the absence of CNN and internet). The news assumes an urgency, something that eventually everyone else will find out and something that inevitably will lead to further important events. It also assumes great faith in the veracity of the fact, so you wouldn't worry about people thinking that you have lost your mind. 

That's how we use "Christ is born" instead of "Good morning and Merry Christmas", to convey great excitement and joy. We act as if we had gone back to the Nativity day and had just heard the news. By replying "He is born indeed", we acknowledge that we witnessed the event ourselves or more likely heard the news already from someone we completely trust (the gospels). We do not mean "Christ was born (once upon a time)". We mean He is born, and He's here. As Orthodox Christians we do NOT commemorate Christ's birthday, we spread the joy of the news. 

The same thing happens on Easter, only this time the news is "Christ is risen", or "Христос воскресе". Again, a dead man has risen, something so extraordinary that saying anything else but the fact itself is superfluous or even impossible. And once again, we go back to apostolic times and act as apostles ourselves - we spread the good news (the word gospel = good news). Both are truly wonderful orthodox greetings, and if I'm not mistaken have their origin in Greek. I know for a fact that Greeks greet themselves in the same way on both holidays. They are a true manifest of faith, quite unlike the ordinary Merry Christmas.

I hope you'll find this explanation helpful, because any literal translation of Христос се роди without the context does not convey the meaning of the greeting. And getting the tense right is very important.


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