Beauty and Flourishing
what prosperity is all about
Fáilte! (Welcome!)
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Now, for this edition of The Gaelic Effect…
Blessings of Abundance and Beauty to You
Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh! Happy New Year—to you all!
I’ve been saying a lot in the last week, “Happy new year!” That got me curious—what do these words actually mean? In Irish, the traditional way of saying “happy new year” is Athbhliain faoi mhaise duit! Yet as often happens, a lot is lost in translation. As true of many every day expressions in Irish (see Each of Us Gods), it is more a blessing than a greeting, inviting us literally to “re-see” the new year (and ourselves).
Goodliness
A key word in this “blessing” is the word mhaise. According to Wiktionary, faoi mhaise as a set phrase means “happy, contented”—not that far off from the English “Happy new year!”—but it also, significantly, means “flourishing.” A form of the feminine noun maise, on its own (without faoi) it means “the state or quality of being beautiful” [Focloir] or “splendor,” “flourishing,” “enhancing” and, from these meanings, “prosperous.” I love how all these definitions kaleidoscope. In this group of word-meanings, “beautiful” is synonymous with “flourishing.” “Flourish” refers to “a living organism grow[ing] or develop[ing] in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment” [Oxford]. So when you are in the act of “enhancing” (developing) in a full (vigorous) way (flourishing), you are beautiful—and successful (one definition of “prosperous”). The etymology of the word maise goes back to Old Irish, meaning “goodliness.” This tells us a lot about what’s considered “good” or full of goodness in Irish-language thinking: becoming, emerging, flourishing—prospering (and I don’t think only in a monetary way). It’s being in the fullness of potential—so fully alive.
Sitting with the word maise and its inter-woven meanings, I see in my mind’s eye a flower unfolding. It starts out small and uncertain, bound in on itself—just the sprout or idea of a flower. Then it continues to grow and grow and grow—becoming more open, radiant, generous—fully itself and with all the color, size and shape the little bud was capable of. Similiar to space travel photos that allow us to see the earth in its entirety, we can see this process of flower-unfolding thanks to time-lapse photography:
There’s a lot here, if you unpack it. On the most basic level, when someone says “happy new year”to you in Irish, what they’re really saying is, “may you fully develop and flourish this year; may you step into your full beauty.” Given these word-webs, they’re also wishing you prosperity—prosperity from the result of emerging and becoming. “Enhancing” means “improving the quality, amount, or strength of something” [Cambridge]. It’s a process, observed in a moment (as expressed by those -ing forms in English). It’s happening now. To see and experience it, you need to be present and paying attention. This reminds me of a larger thread in Irish indigenous culture: the awareness of a living world and the value on presence (witnessing that world). [See A World Pulsing with Life].
within you and beneath you
Maise is already a power house of meaning. Yet there are two other potent words in this blessing: faoi and athbhlian. Faoi is a preposition sometimes translated into English as “about;” yet it primarly means “under,” “beneath” or “within” [Teanglann]. So this beauty, flourishing and splendor is wished within you and beneath you—in effect, under your very feet and to your very core. Athbhlian is a compound word, made up of bhlian (year) plus the suffix ath-, similiar to “re-” in English, meaning “again.” So when using this most traditional and common way of saying “happy new year,” you’re not using the word “new.” You are literally telling someone, ‘Happy Re-Year!” Personally, I always experience the idea of a “new” year with pressure and forebodance. It’s “new”—so don’t waste or squander it! It won’t be new for long! There’s a quality of scarcity. In contrast, while athbhliaina in this context means “the coming year” or “new year,” I like that ath in fact means “again.” It reminds me that I have another chance—a retake, a remake, a rekindle.
The way you say “happy new year” in Irish reminds me of the Navajo prayer, ‘Now I walk in beauty, beauty before me…and below me…” Similarly, “happy new year in Irish” tells you: “May you in this re-year have beneath you and within you flourishing and beauty.”
Another way to say Happy New Year is bliain úr mhaith duit—that literally means good “fresh” (or reinvigorated) year to you! These and other less traditional ways of saying Happy New Year—bliain nua faio mhaise dhuit, for example, use the word “new” (nua) along with mhaise. (I wonder if these nua versions are nua?— from the influence of English?) You can say also, beannachtaí na bliana nua (“greetings,” according to Google, but literally “blessings” for the “new year”) or beannachtaí na hAthbhliaina (New Year’s Greetings—says Google again but literally, “New Year’s blessings”). Both of these make use of the word “blessing”—reiterating, it seems, the original and traditional intent of Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhuit.
What do you wish to manifest this year? What do you want to breathe into—or re-take or re-do? At our clachan beo (live community call) we’ll explore these questions together, drawing on the principles explored here plus some from Nonviolent Communication. Hold the date: Sunday, February 7th at 3pm EST/8pm IST and bígí linn—join us!
For now, happy manifesting! Go mbeire bliain ó inniu faoi mhaise orainn! (May we prosper in the year to come!) Faoi bhláth agus faoi mhaise duit! (Bloom and beauty to you!),
Dian (i mBaile Átha Cliath—in Dublin)
P.S. Here are some other inspiring words that start with ath: athadhain (rekindle), athfhás (second growth/harvest), athaimsigh (rediscover), athbheochan (revival, renaisaance), or athbhreithnigh (review, revise, reconsider).
P.S.S. Do you write a Substack about Irish history, language or culture? Are there ones you especially love? I am updating Gaelstack early next year. Please send me your recommendations!
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Dian you are faoi bláth agus faoi mhaise - flourishing here in BAC! Maith thú mo chara, spreagann tú mé.
Thank you, Dian, for bringing us to, and guiding us through, the depths, the deep-soul-depths, of the Irish tongue.