The Coinciding Of Hanukkah And Christmas

Hanukkah And Christmas

As the holidays come close, people get into the buying spree for their family and loved ones. While most people all over the world know about Christmas, made popular by Santa, very few know about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

What?

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday and is also known as the Festival of Lights. It is celebrated for eight days and starts on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, which is during late November or December. The word Hanukkah means "dedication".

It is celebrated to commemorate the re-dedication of the holy temple in Jerusalem following the victory over Syrian- Greeks by the Jews around 165 B.C.E.

The Story:

The most interesting part of a festival is the story attached to it. Hanukkah is no different. It goes like this.

In 168 B.C.E. the Jewish temple was seized by the Syrian-Greek armies and then it was dedicated to worship Zeus. In 167 B.C.E. the emperor, Antiochus made the practise of Judaism an offense punishable by death and forced all Jews to worship Greek Gods. Both these events upset the Jewish people a lot but many were afraid to fight.

In the village of Modiin, the villagers were gathered and forced to bow to an idol and then eat the flesh of a pig. Both of these acts are not done by Jews. The High Priest, Mattathias killed the Greek officer and the other soldiers were killed by the rest of the villagers. While Mattathias and his family fled to the mountains, the Jews who wanted to fight against the Greeks joined him. These rebels were called the Maccabees and were gradually successful in taking over their land.

After they regained the temple of Jerusalem, it was already spiritually defiled by the sacrificing of swine and worship of foreign gods in the temple. The Jews had to perform an oil ritual to purify the temple. They had to burn the oil for eight days, but found out that the oil available was only for one day. They burned the oil anyway and surprisingly, it lasted eight days.

This miracle is celebrated every year by the Jewish festival of Hanukkah which is for eight days.

Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrated on the 25th of December. It is celebrated to commemorate the birth of Jesus. Even though there are certain doubts as to the exact date, 25th December has been celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ.

Over the years, due to the proximity in the dates of Hanukkah and Christmas, most people tend to celebrate both around the same time and involve a similar ritual of giving and receiving gifts. In fact, the Jewish people teach their kids about Hanukkah as "Christians have Christmas, we have Hanukkah."

In fact, Chrismukkah is the name given to the merging of the two holidays! It has been popularized by TV shows, notably the O.C. and commercialised to sell products (something that is happening with every festival). There is a website dedicated to this festival as well! Some believe that the Jewish people need to know about their customs and teach their kids the real meaning of Hanukkah and not make Christmas as a substitute for Hanukkah.

In fact, apart from the similarity of dates, there is nothing similar in the two festivals. Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days while Christmas for twelve. Hanukkah is one of the minor festivals in the Jewish calendar while Christmas is one of the two major festivals. The way both the festivals are celebrated is different. So while Christians tend to indulge in delicacies during Christmas, the Jews are supposed to eat fried foods or foods baked in oil.

Recently there has been a change in the attitude. In interfaith marriages (one parent is a Christian while the other is a Jew), couples tend to focus on both Hanukkah and Christmas and do a good job in differentiating the two festivals. They make sure to balance both the festivals' customs and traditions so that their children grow up respecting both the religions.

In a report on the CNN, interfaith couples voted for both the festivals to let their kids know and make them learn about the religion both the parents were born in. Nevertheless, most families prefer Hanukkah, keeping Christmas as a more secular festival.

Either way, Hanukkah and Christmas are two different festivals celebrating the birth of faith and miracles in different ways.