Many Happy Returns is a greeting which is usually reserved for birthdays. It is more common in British English than in American English.
The term itself refers to the passing year. Since the 18th century this has been used as a salutation to offer the hope that a happy day being marked would recur many more times. It is now primarily used on birthdays; prior to the mid 19th century it was used more generally, at any celebratory or festive event.
Current usage is often as a more formal option than 'Happy Birthday'. It is also often to be found on greetings cards.
Its earliest attributable use was by Lady Newdigate in a letter written in 1789 (and published in Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels in 1898)
- "Many happy returns of ye day to us my Dr Love"
The letter is written in London on the 31st of May 1789 by lady Hester Margaretta Mundy Newdigate to her husband, Sir Roger Newdigate, 5th Baronet, and refers to a wish for their wedding day.
A much earlier reference is found in Addison's The Free-Holder :
- "The usual Salutation to a Man upon his Birth-day among the ancient Romans was Multos & foelices; in which they wished him many happy Returns of it."
An alternative explanation is that "returns" here is used in the sense of "yield" or "profit" that it is still found in "investment returns". Therefore "many happy returns of the day" would be a wishing a person a rewarding day, full of happiness. This use has been traced back to Joseph Addison in 1716.
Many Happy Returns is also Winnie-the-Pooh's preferred method of wishing people a Happy Birthday, as seen throughout the story "In Which Eeyore has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents" in the 1926 collection Winnie-the-Pooh.
Famous quotes containing the words happy and/or returns:
“When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv’d
with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me
that follow’d,
And else when I carous’d, or when my plans were accomplish’d,
still I was not happy,
But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health,
refresh’d, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“So cruel prison how could betide, alas,
As proud Windsor, Where I in lust and joy
With a king’s son my childish years did pass
In greater feast than Priam’s sons of Troy?
Where each sweet place returns a taste full sour;”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)