Jews and decorations at Chanukah and Christmas time
While reading the New York Times this morning, I came across this piece, called "Jewish in a Winter Wonderland,", about a pair of Jewish newlyweds who decide that, being across the country from family where no one would know, they would put up a Christmas tree just because they wanted to. They're adults, after all, and they can indulge in all the kitsch and consumerism they please. (The writer then does a shout-out to her parents, who she knows reads her stuff; I was amused.) Reading the piece, I recognized a lot of the thoughts and feelings the writer expresses, that occasional feeling of "I want blinky lights and a tree the cats will take apart and stockings too heavy to stay on the mantle!" And then, I feel my dad sitting on my shoulder, reminding me that none of that stuff is our tradition and it's not appropriate.
At the end of the NYT article were links to four other pieces, all of which appeared to be on the theme of Jews embracing the trappings of Christmas without the religious overtones. The link I chose was to this article about a Jewish woman in LA who lives in a mostly Orthodox neighborhood and who puts up a pretty ostentatious Christmas display in her front yard every year, including Santa Claus and reindeer and an enormous Frosty the Snowman. The two points that spoke to me in the article were:
First: “Santa Claus is inherently Christian,” said Michael J. Broyde, the director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University and an expert on Jewish law and ethics, pointing out that the character is derived from a third-century saint, Nicolas. He added, “I have never thought about candy canes.”
Then this note: “I don’t know why the Jewish people don’t decorate more,” said Marilyn Corre, a British Jew who is married to a former prisoner of war of the Japanese in World War II - both were raised in Orthodox homes. (Perhaps, thought I, being a practical people, Jews don't decorate more because it would be more stuff to transport from place to place when it was time to flee.)
I know that in my mind, having grown up Jewish in an Italian/German neighborhood where a lot of the kids went to parochial school,* Christmas lights and Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths were firmly associated with, well, the Mass of the Christ. On the other hand, when I was a kid, winter solstice was merely a date on the calendar, not something more generally acknowledged and celebrated as it is in my current social circles. The country is, in some ways, more secular and more embracing than it was when I was a kid. But the teachings of childhood die hard and the prefix "Christmas" attached to lights and trees and wreaths has a lingering association for me. Objectively, as mysticalforest has pointed out, these things are attached to customs much older than Christmas and aren't doctrinally attached to the holiday; they're part of human heritage more than they are part of Christian heritage. My response to him was that generations of accrued association are hard to shake. This is unfortunate, because there is a loveliness, a cheerfulness to lights and wreaths that is very appealing.
Reading these two articles and noting the links to yet two more, I had another reaction I wasn't expecting, which was, "Wow, this feels like pressure to assimilate." It was a momentary flash, but it lasted long enough for me to notice it. And that made me a little uncomfortable. Would putting up a Chanukah bush (that thinly-disguised Christmas tree) or white lights along my balcony railing make me somehow less Jewish (not that I'm a paragon of observance or belief in God to begin with)? Or would it make me, weirdly, more American? Jews have often been cultural chameleons, retaining religious observance in every cultural context, while absorbing the flavor and customs of the people around them. What constitutes crossing the line? What's the boundary? (Is there a boundary?) Is it custom? Is it belief? I should think it would be the latter more than the former. One piece I found while contemplating this entry makes a point about why a Chanukah bush might not be the best way to celebrate at this time of year: "On Chanukah, we celebrate the victory of traditional Jewish culture over both the forces without that strove to overturn it and the forces within that wished to dilute it." This also puts me in mind of a movie reference, that scene in "Witness" where the Amish grandfather says to his grandson of a hand gun, "What you take into your hand, you take into your heart."
I haven't settled on the answer for myself. That being the case, there was no Chanukah bush or blinky lights at my place this year (as there never has been).
I should note, for the record, that I'm not distressed by any of this thinking. This whole entry is me chewing over the accretion of cultural crust on symbols and customs and how that accretion affects our habits, religious observance, and social discourse. And, yes, it certainly is me thinking about my own choices.
* My parents chose this neighborhood, according to my mom, because they wanted us to grow up knowing there were other people besides Jews in the worlda laudable goal though I'm not sure I agree with the mode of instruction. I heard the word "kike" from my contemporaries before I was out of fifth grade.
In light of all this (and to lighten the mood), I offer a little holiday chuckle, "Chinese Food On Christmas," a simple little YouTube treat: a guy at a piano with a Jewish perspective. Happy merry!
At the end of the NYT article were links to four other pieces, all of which appeared to be on the theme of Jews embracing the trappings of Christmas without the religious overtones. The link I chose was to this article about a Jewish woman in LA who lives in a mostly Orthodox neighborhood and who puts up a pretty ostentatious Christmas display in her front yard every year, including Santa Claus and reindeer and an enormous Frosty the Snowman. The two points that spoke to me in the article were:
First: “Santa Claus is inherently Christian,” said Michael J. Broyde, the director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University and an expert on Jewish law and ethics, pointing out that the character is derived from a third-century saint, Nicolas. He added, “I have never thought about candy canes.”
Then this note: “I don’t know why the Jewish people don’t decorate more,” said Marilyn Corre, a British Jew who is married to a former prisoner of war of the Japanese in World War II - both were raised in Orthodox homes. (Perhaps, thought I, being a practical people, Jews don't decorate more because it would be more stuff to transport from place to place when it was time to flee.)
I know that in my mind, having grown up Jewish in an Italian/German neighborhood where a lot of the kids went to parochial school,* Christmas lights and Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths were firmly associated with, well, the Mass of the Christ. On the other hand, when I was a kid, winter solstice was merely a date on the calendar, not something more generally acknowledged and celebrated as it is in my current social circles. The country is, in some ways, more secular and more embracing than it was when I was a kid. But the teachings of childhood die hard and the prefix "Christmas" attached to lights and trees and wreaths has a lingering association for me. Objectively, as mysticalforest has pointed out, these things are attached to customs much older than Christmas and aren't doctrinally attached to the holiday; they're part of human heritage more than they are part of Christian heritage. My response to him was that generations of accrued association are hard to shake. This is unfortunate, because there is a loveliness, a cheerfulness to lights and wreaths that is very appealing.
Reading these two articles and noting the links to yet two more, I had another reaction I wasn't expecting, which was, "Wow, this feels like pressure to assimilate." It was a momentary flash, but it lasted long enough for me to notice it. And that made me a little uncomfortable. Would putting up a Chanukah bush (that thinly-disguised Christmas tree) or white lights along my balcony railing make me somehow less Jewish (not that I'm a paragon of observance or belief in God to begin with)? Or would it make me, weirdly, more American? Jews have often been cultural chameleons, retaining religious observance in every cultural context, while absorbing the flavor and customs of the people around them. What constitutes crossing the line? What's the boundary? (Is there a boundary?) Is it custom? Is it belief? I should think it would be the latter more than the former. One piece I found while contemplating this entry makes a point about why a Chanukah bush might not be the best way to celebrate at this time of year: "On Chanukah, we celebrate the victory of traditional Jewish culture over both the forces without that strove to overturn it and the forces within that wished to dilute it." This also puts me in mind of a movie reference, that scene in "Witness" where the Amish grandfather says to his grandson of a hand gun, "What you take into your hand, you take into your heart."
I haven't settled on the answer for myself. That being the case, there was no Chanukah bush or blinky lights at my place this year (as there never has been).
I should note, for the record, that I'm not distressed by any of this thinking. This whole entry is me chewing over the accretion of cultural crust on symbols and customs and how that accretion affects our habits, religious observance, and social discourse. And, yes, it certainly is me thinking about my own choices.
* My parents chose this neighborhood, according to my mom, because they wanted us to grow up knowing there were other people besides Jews in the worlda laudable goal though I'm not sure I agree with the mode of instruction. I heard the word "kike" from my contemporaries before I was out of fifth grade.
In light of all this (and to lighten the mood), I offer a little holiday chuckle, "Chinese Food On Christmas," a simple little YouTube treat: a guy at a piano with a Jewish perspective. Happy merry!