The Grand Rising meme refers to parodies of the phrase, an alternative to the greeting “good morning” that is meant to have more positive connotations.
What does 'Grand Rising' mean in slang?
The “Grand Rising” phrase in slang is, in some ways, the religious spiritual equivalent of saying “good morning.” The majority of the folks who use the phrase in earnest are religious to some degree and have ascribed its use in replacement of saying good morning as a way of thinking intentionally about the words they choose to say.
According to The History of English website, those who use Grand Rising in the mornings as a greeting “have undergone a spiritual awakening of some kind” and that words are “vibrations that carry a specific meaning.” Because "morning" has an identical pronunciation to "mourning," these folks are opting to use an alternative greeting to avoid negative emotions associated with loss.
What's the difference between 'Grand Rising' and 'Good Morning'?
For the most basic sense of them being a way to greet other people in the time before noon, there is no difference in meaning behind Grand Rising and Good Morning. For those who say Grand Rising instead of Good Morning, they see it as a spiritual greeting to show their love and thankfulness for the coming day.
There are also numerous other meanings that people can use Grand Rising, such as in preparation for the day ahead, referencing the “rising” aspect of the phrase for rising for the day. For those who are more religious, Grand Rising, or Great Rising depending on the person's wording preference, can also be a reference to prayer and speaking to God. Another meaning of the phrase could be simply an energetic declaration of energy for something highly-anticipated.
The phrase Grand Rising has been turned into memes on social media, as folks tend to do, and have twisted the meaning away from a religious one in many cases.
“Its just spirituality type speak from black ppl who place a lot of sacred value on words / the phonetics of words. Ive heard this and this sort of phrasing for various words from various ppl over the years,” Redditor u/GoodSilhouette explained, adding, “And ofc some people say it playfully, tongue in cheek which I do with friends here and there.”
Not everyone is comfortable with the Grand Rising folks, with many on social media describing them as “cult-like”—including those like u/KeniLF, whose older sister is part of a church they describe as, “not really a cult but it is one of those huge megachurches where the pastor is a multimillionaire with a private jet/helicopter/etc.”
Some are amused by the phrase and asked if other phrases should be similarly replaced, with amusing results.
