Red Letter Day

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Janet from San Diego, California.

Hi, Janet.

Oh, Janet, what’s going on in San Diego?

Oh, three kids that are about to descend upon me.

So I’m hoping this works.

Oh, my, how old are they?

They’re five, seven, and ten.

Okay, all right.

Well, what’s on your mind today?

Well, it’s my birthday, and I’m having a red-letter day.

And I looked up red-letter day.

I’ve always wanted to know what a red-letter day is.

And I looked it up, and it just says a special day.

But I wondered what the reference was.

Why a red-letter day?

-huh.

Well, happy birthday, by the way.

Oh, thanks.

Is this one of the ones with the zero on the end?

No, that’s next year.

Oh, all right.

Well, congratulations.

So 20 and three kids.

That’s amazing.

Wow.

I’m their caregiver.

Oh, I see.

Oh, you’re the caregiver.

Okay.

But I started when I was 52, which is a little nuts.

Well, do you have a guess about why there might be a red-letter day?

This is one of the ones I can’t even fathom.

I can’t even figure out at all.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Okay, well, the answer is pretty simple.

You know, sometimes red ink is a bad thing,

But in the Middle Ages, people noted on calendars the special days of the year,

The saints’ days and the church festivals, those calendars came printed with red.

Really?

Yeah, for those particular special days.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, so red ink in that case was an occasion for saying,

Yippee!

Or, you know, whatever they said in medieval Europe

When they were excited about a special day.

See, I never knew that.

I never would have ever thought of that.

In a million years?

Oh, and I haven’t been able to look it up,

Or, you know, all the dictionaries and things.

You have to go through it again.

Yeah, those darn dictionaries.

I thought it’d be more fun to talk to you guys.

Well, is it?

Of course.

All right.

Go take care of those kids.

The house might burn down.

Well, then you’d have a different kind of red-letter day.

A red-bottom day.

Yes, really.

Red-bottom day.

Thanks.

Okay, Janet.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Easy enough.

And it’s funny.

The calendars still tend to do that for holidays, don’t they?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they do.

Yeah, this has been a practice for centuries in ancient Rome.

They use red at the top of laws, recorded laws.

I might go to Google Calendar, which I use, and change my holidays to red.

To red.

Right now they’re all brown.

Just as a way of continuing a millennium-long tradition.

That’s beautiful. I love it.

Yeah, why not?

If you’ve got a question that’s been bugging you

And the dictionaries are just too much trouble,

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673.

And the email address is words@waywordradio.org.

I’m sorry, just outsource your etymology.