This is a special article of this website and it is being written on 24 December 2013 on the Christmas and New Year eve. We know Swami Vivekananda wrote a good number of letters to his friends, disciples and well-wishers in Christmas and New Year festive season. Naturally he sent Christmas/New Year’s greetings in many of those letters.
Now we are going to make a collection of Swami Vivekananda’s Christmas and New Year greetings and wishes.
1895
Letter dated 24 December 1895, sent from New York, recipient Mrs. Ole Bull
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you, dear Mrs. Bull. And may peace and health rest on you and yours for ever. I am going out of town today and will be back in ten days.
My love to all.
Yours affectionately,
VIVEKANANDA[Source]
Letter dated 24 December 1895, sent from 228 W. 39th street, New York, recipient Sister Christine
DEAR CHRISTINA —
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you. I am going today to the country. I return in 10 days . . .[Source]
Letter dated 29 December 1895, sent from Ridgely Manor, recipient E. T. Sturdy
My Christmas greetings to all our friends — to Mrs. and Mr. Johnson, to Lady Margesson, Mrs. Clark, Miss Hawes, Miss Müller, Miss Steel, and all the rest. — V.[Source]
1896
Letter dated 3 January 1896, sent from 228 W. 39th street, New York, recipient Mrs. Ole Bull
I am very well both physically and mentally. Wishing you a happy New Year.[Source]
1898
Letter dated 4 January 1898, sent from Jodhpur, Rajputana, recipient Sister Christine
Love and greetings etc. to thee, dear Christina, and a happy New Year. May it find you younger in heart, stronger in body, and purer in spirit.[Source]
1899
Letter dated 16 April 1899, sent from 1899, recipient Sarala Ghosal
May all your wishes be fulfilled in this New Year![Source]
(Most probably it was Bengali New Year’s greetings —Ed.)
Letter dated 27 December 1899, sent from 921, West 21ST Street, Los Angeles, recipient Mrs. Ole Bull
An eventful and happy New Year to you and many such returns. . .![Source]
Letter dated 27 December 1899, sent from 921, West 21ST Street, Los Angeles, recipient Mary Hale
MY DEAR MARY,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and many, many glorious returns of such for your birthday. All these wishes, prayers, greetings in one breath. I am cured, you will be glad to know. It was only indigestion and no heart or kidney affection, quoth the healers; nothing more. And I am walking three miles a day — after a heavy dinner.
Say — the person healing me insisted on my smoking! So I am having my pipe nicely and am all the better for it. In plain English the nervousness etc. was all due to dyspepsia and nothing more.
. . . I am at work too; working, working, not hard; but I don’t care, and I want to make money this time. Tell this to Margot, especially the pipe business. You know who is healing me? No physician, no Christian Science healer, but a magnetic healing woman who skins me every time she treats me. Wonders — she performs operations by rubbing — internal operations too, her patients tell me.
It is getting late in the night. I have to give up writing separate letters to Margot, Harriet, Isabelle, and Mother Church. Wish is half the work. They all know how I love them dearly, passionately; so you become the medium for my spirit for the time, and carry them my New Year’s messages.[Source]
Letter dated 27 December 1899, sent from 921, West 21ST Street, Los Angeles, recipient Sister Christine
The New Year is sure to bring about a great change. Pray some good may come to India. I send you all joy, all love, all success for the New Year and many, many more to come.
So you did well, you think, by coming to Mrs. Bull. I am glad. I wanted you to know Mrs. Bull thoroughly. Remain there as long as you can. It will do you good, I am sure. Take heart and be of cheer, for next year is sure to bring many joys and a hundred blessings. [Source]
1901
Letter dated 25 December 1901, sent from Belur Math, Howrah, recipient Sister Christine
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year is the usual congratulation. Alas! The stars brought you a tremendous blow. (Sister Christine’s mother had passed away.) Blessed be the name of the Lord. After all, it is only “Thy will be done” — our only refuge. I will not insult you by offering you consolation — you know it all already. Only this line to remind you of one who is in entire sympathy with you and who knows that all your plans must be good in joy or sorrow, as you are dedicated to the eternal Mother. Well, the Mother phenomenal has merged in the Mother absolute, eternal. Thy will be done.[Source]
