The day of All Souls. All Saints aka All Hallows celebrates saints, not ordinary folk. The confusion is due to these two feasts falling on successive days. All Saints' day is on the first of Novmber, All Souls (when we remember the departed) on November 2nd. The eve (day before) of All Saints is known as Hallows' Eve, or Hallows' Even, shortened to Hallow'een..This type of expression is not a sentence, but a phrase. As something that is not a direct literal translation but a phrase peculiar to a particular language (in this case, English) it is an idiom. Often "day of the dead", a literal translation from the Spanish, is used to make it clear that the reference is specific to the Mexican form of the festival.
idiom = "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light )".
day of the dead -- is a special day (a holiday) in some cultures for honoring the dead. That is entirely deducible. It is not figurative.
3. I am aware of no special term for a phrase that is merely the name of a holiday.
4. However, it is also a translation. "day of the dead", is an English translation from Spanish - "dia de los Muertos" - the actual name of the holiday.
Since it lacks a verb, "day of the dead" is an incomplete sentence. It is a "phrase".
The specific example can also be considered an idiom. That is a "phrase" that has meaning other then what the word actually say. Another example would be "go jump in the lake." That phrase has nothing to do with "going", "jumping" or "lakes." Rather it means to be accursed, confounded, humiliated.
I think the word you are looking for is "idiom." Idiom is a phrase or word that is understood by fluent speakers to have a meaning that is different from what you would know just by translating each word.
"Day of the dead" is a holiday for honoring the memories of loved ones or other important people who are deceased. The only people I know who celebrate Day of the Dead (Dio de los muertos) are of Mexican heritage, but I'm not sure whether the tradition started in that country. It seems very close in purpose to the All Saints Day tradition of my Europeon ancestors.
Answers & Comments
The day of All Souls. All Saints aka All Hallows celebrates saints, not ordinary folk. The confusion is due to these two feasts falling on successive days. All Saints' day is on the first of Novmber, All Souls (when we remember the departed) on November 2nd. The eve (day before) of All Saints is known as Hallows' Eve, or Hallows' Even, shortened to Hallow'een..This type of expression is not a sentence, but a phrase. As something that is not a direct literal translation but a phrase peculiar to a particular language (in this case, English) it is an idiom. Often "day of the dead", a literal translation from the Spanish, is used to make it clear that the reference is specific to the Mexican form of the festival.
It's not a sentence. There is no verb.
"of the dead" is a prepositional phrase modifying "day".
Incomplete. That is not a complete sentence. It lacks a verb and the nominal phrase is ambiguous as we don't know if it's a subject or an object.
1. It's a phrase, not a sentence.
2. I disagree with those suggesting "idiom".
idiom = "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light )".
day of the dead -- is a special day (a holiday) in some cultures for honoring the dead. That is entirely deducible. It is not figurative.
3. I am aware of no special term for a phrase that is merely the name of a holiday.
4. However, it is also a translation. "day of the dead", is an English translation from Spanish - "dia de los Muertos" - the actual name of the holiday.
It's just a phrase.
Since it lacks a verb, "day of the dead" is an incomplete sentence. It is a "phrase".
The specific example can also be considered an idiom. That is a "phrase" that has meaning other then what the word actually say. Another example would be "go jump in the lake." That phrase has nothing to do with "going", "jumping" or "lakes." Rather it means to be accursed, confounded, humiliated.
I think the word you are looking for is "idiom." Idiom is a phrase or word that is understood by fluent speakers to have a meaning that is different from what you would know just by translating each word.
"Day of the dead" is a holiday for honoring the memories of loved ones or other important people who are deceased. The only people I know who celebrate Day of the Dead (Dio de los muertos) are of Mexican heritage, but I'm not sure whether the tradition started in that country. It seems very close in purpose to the All Saints Day tradition of my Europeon ancestors.
That's not a complete sentence, it's a phrase. It's a title, or the name of a holiday, and doesn't have to be a complete sentence.
That's a phrase not a sentence.