how to say “holiday meal” in Hebrew
אֲרוּחַת חַג, סְעוּדַת חַג[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-1.m4a” /]
The predominant word for meal in Modern Hebrew is ארוחה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-2.m4a” /], related to the word אורח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-3.m4a” /] meaning guest, both words deriving from the root א.ר.ח[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-4.m4a” /] meaning path or way.
But ארוחה does not appear in Biblical Hebrew except for a couple of instances. Neither does סעודה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-5.m4a” /], the word for meal appearing all over Mishnaic and later Rabbinic Hebrew, deriving from the ס.ע.ד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-6.m4a” /] meaning support, sustain: a meal sustains a person. Perhaps the concept of a proper meal wasn’t so common in Biblical times, though this I leave to the archaeologists to determine.
In any case, a holiday meal, as spoken by most Israelis, is ארוחת חג[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-7.m4a” /].
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-8.m4a” /]איפה תהיו בארוחת החג?
Where will you guys be for (during) the holiday meal?
Some more religious Israelis prefer the Rabbinic סעודה to ארוחה, as well as יום טוב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-9.m4a” /] (literally, good day – in Yiddish, yuntiff) to חג[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-10.m4a” /], so that a holiday meal is סעודת יום טוב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ארוחת-חג-11.m4a” /].