Why the odd holiday names?

[Ashton]

This is something I've been thinking about and wondered what everyone's take on it was. I can understand "Nightmare Night" because it's roots are in Nightmare Moon, but "Hearthswarming eve"? Yes, there is (presumably) no "Christianity" in the series (or at least it's severely avoided) and they're trying not to offend other religions, but most shows use "Winter Solstice" as the alternative. Likewise why no "Valentines Day"? I've never heard of anyone offended by Valentines day (unless you count the anti-commercialism who dont like holidays that revolve around buying things)... One might argue "hearts and hooves" is to make it more "pony" but it seems to push it a bit, and again, nothing pony about "hearthswarming"...

Thoughts?

[Angie Cakes]

they're just trying to make the pony world a place separate from the human world. ponies have their own history and culture, therefore their own holidays :3

somebody is going to argue this point, I can feel it x_x I have no come backs though.

[Starfox64x]

they're just trying to make the pony world a place separate from the human world. ponies have their own history and culture, therefore their own holidays :3

No argument here... that's pretty much what i think... and, well... i dont really have anything to add right now, heh...

[TTX]

Tryin' to be creative and stuff they is.

Personally I just started using the pony names in real life.

[shreddedpegasus]

Pretty much what #2 said would more than likely be spot on. But looking into it a bit more, 'hearth' is defined as;

• The floor of a fireplace.
  
• The area in front of a fireplace.
  

Probably has something to do with the sitting in front of the 'fire of friendship' (metaphorically sitting at least) or something along those lines. Christmas often being spent with family and friends inside in front of a fire place?

Just some food for thought, but yeah like I said the most #2 is more than likely spot on with the reasoning.

[TheColtofPersonality]

Yeah the naming is quite creative in my opinion, having their own holidays as opposed to ours.

And in a way I like this approach, G3 had a christmas episode and it makes no sense whatsoever and that isnt just because G3 sucks but the matter that it is celebrated by ponies with no real ties to humans.

At least with G1 I can understand thanks to the human girl Megan who lived "On the other side of the rainbow" being sort of a shout out to Wizard of Oz who could teach the ponies about Earth holidays.

[Davroth]

Valentine is a Christian saint. Also, it's got a proper name in it, which would make it totally out of place in MLP FiM.

[SirShadowdeath]

'Nuff said.

[Rosewind]

I think it's cute and clever to have pony-flavored seasonal holidays that parallel our own. Sorry, but I don't have much else to say about that!

[weesh]

This is way less strange that the "everypony" silliness. Until I've figured out that one, I don't even know where to start on this.

[Dessa]

This is way less strange that the "everypony" silliness. Until I've figured out that one, I don't even know where to start on this.

Right? Because ponies have bodies, why not everybody?

[starswirlthebearded]

Right? Because ponies have bodies, why not everybody?

Personally I always assumed that it was just encompassing in the whole pony pun thing. Neither everybody nor everyone really equates to a human only thing. But I assume that the shows writers just felt it would be cute to include it among all other pony puns. Either that or it is just a carry over from the original series. I have never seen the original series, but for some reason I can imaging "everypony" coming from there.

[Ashton]

This is way less strange that the "everypony" silliness. Until I've figured out that one, I don't even know where to start on this.

Whats still about that is we regularily hear "Everyone" and "Everybody" --- presumably for unknown reasons "everypony" is the PC term in equestria, but the residents still use the non-pc "everyone" and "everybody" just like IRL we have similar issues with PC-ness (never realized it but that might be a little gimmic tucked away to help ground it a tiny bit more in reality...)

[Dessa]

Well, if you really wanted to get down to it, "everybody" is more inclusive, so probably more PC. But I think they were more interested in the pun than in the social commentary.

[DashieInTheDark]

Is it good or bad that I started using these names in real life?

I'm going to go ahead and assume it's good?

[HopeFox]

Christmas and Valentine's Day both refer to named Earth individuals, so they wouldn't make any sense from an Equestrian perspective. Halloween is short for "All Hallows' Eve", which, again, refers to a Catholic holy day. There's very little in the way of religion in Equestria, so the idea of a particular day of the year being "hallowed" wouldn't mean much.

A generic Winter Solstice holiday wouldn't have a lot of meaning in Equestria either, since ponies govern the passage of seasons themselves. The Winter Solstice happens whenever Celestia says it does. Granted, they probably do have a Winter Solstice celebration, since they have one for the Summer Solstice too, but it wouldn't necessarily be a big thing. The passage of seasons was one of the big mysteries for civilizations who didn't understand the heliocentric solar system, but there's precisely zero mystery in it for ponies.

[TEFAfar]

Hearthswarming eve was named as such because there was that cold neverending winter caused by the wendigoes as depicted in the play of the same episode; and the name was in honor of the ponies triumph over the cold. Hearts and hooves was named as such because there is no St. Valentines in pony history.