Christmas/Hanukkah

  Christmas Tree, or Hanukkah Bush

 

             Menorah

I was talking to my "Shiksa" friend about the difference in holiday celebrations in the Jewish and Christian traditions. There are certain similarities. Both Christmas and Hanukkah are ritualistic celebrations, revolve around meals and involve presents. They are also both perfect opportunities for familes to get together, bond, argue, dysfunction and generally remind each other why they don't get together more often.

On the surface, Hanukkah would seem to have some advantages. First of all , it lasts eight nights, with that much more opporutunity for presents. It also seems less stressful to go Hanukkah shopping than Christmas shopping. I mean, has anyone heard of "pre-Hanukkah Day" sales?! Beat the rush! Prices good until sundown! On the other hand, "joy" is not one of the basic tenets of Jewish tradition. The story of Hanukkah is based on a tale of grief, regret and frugality, typical Jewish  character traits.  So even though there might be more  presents during the nights of Hanukkah, they tend to be that much less impressive than the ones received on Christmas (or Christmas Eve, I'm told). I know about this, because when I was a kid, we used to celebrate both holidays (thus the nomenclature "wash" in my blog url --   "White Anglo-Saxon Hebrew." By way of excuse (of COURSE I feel guilty!), my cousin had married a Protestant so we were "obligated" to celebrate Christmas -- which was by far much more exciting than Hanukkah anyway to tell you the truth. I mean there were the cookies for Santa Claus, the free flowing of egg nog and whiskey and all the big presents under a giant Christmas tree (which, having it both ways, we could refer to as a "Hanukkah Bush") And gingerbread cookies -- I'm really partial to them. But I think the gingerbread boy looks decidedly WASPy doesn't he? Although it seems like they did an especially good job at circumcision, the unkindest cut of all! Happy Holidays!!

Comments

[Hilary Lee Fergenson]

I'm a huge fan of chunking all the winter holidays into what I call "Kwanzacrismukkah Years" as this is the Unitarian Universalist thing to do. I think that it's cool to get twice the amount of presents and intertwine the decorations by placing Santa Claus knick knacks right next to a menorah as I've continued this tradition at home since my childhood.

[robhalper]

Thanks for the comment. I love Unitarians. There are so many Jews in the Unitarian Congregation in Montclair, NJ, that we call them the "Jewnitarians!"

[Rowfrofarie]

Mornin`


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