This is the first time that Wendy and I are
celebrating Christmas and Chanukah as a married couple. Since she’s
Jewish and I’ll celebrate any holiday as long as there’s food and
booze, I’ve extended the goodie giveaway started with the Accordion Guy
Advent Calendar to include the eight nights that make up Chanukah.
The “Jewish Christmas” description is a poor description of
Chanukah; whereas Christmas is considered to be one of the major
holidays of the Christian faith, Chanukah is a minor one in Judaism.
Calling Chanukah the Jewish analogue for Christmas is an exercise in
making poor analogies. It would be like calling a Playstation Portable
“the nerd’s prom date” (it’s overhyped, you want it in your pants, in
the end, it’s not as good as you expected it would be).
The traditional Jewish calendar, like the Chinese one, is based on
lunar, rather than solar cycles. This means that like Chinese New year,
the Gregorian Calendar (the calendar we use every day) date of Chanukah
changes every year. This year, for the first time in fifty-ish years,
Chanukah and Christmas fall on the same day.
While
the origins of Christmas are reasonably well known (at least here in
“The West”), many people don’t know what Chanukah is all about. Here’s
a little hint for my fellow Gentiles: most Jewish holidays have a theme
along the lines of “They tried to kill us; they failed; let’s eat!” For
a more specific explanation, I can point you to Judaism 101’s page on
the subject, but I thought it would be more fun to show you Steve
Greenberg’s comic, Is it the Jewish Christmas? [JPG file, 170K]
One reply on “Chanukah, Night One: Is it the Jewish Christmas?”
I’ll celebrate any holiday as long as there’s food and booze
So no fast days for you?
The Jewish calendar is lunisolar, actually.