ah, its hebrew school all over again! didn't you sit behind me in gimmel? so why do we say gut/gutten yontif?
it was tradition for religious jews to wish a good yom tov (hebrew) to their fellow brethren. for the most part this applied to each holiday. some holidays were also given additional specific greetings, such as " chag kosher sameach pesach" - again, in hebrew, for "have a happy and kosher passover".
when the jews of eastern europe spoke in the vernacular of yiddish - from where we get gut yontif (the equivalent of the hebrew good yom tov, they began to apply this to all jewish holidays, and even sometimes the saturday sabbaths.
as rosh hashanah and yom kippur are often viewed as one long reflection and solemn series of days, they continue to often be viewed as one long holiday, with the gut yontiff applied.
ask the rebbe has been brought to you by the fine folks at Yossi's Yalmulkes.
- zalmin mit glick!