Might as well join the Holiday chorus

[tikvah]

It seems everyone is getting their knickers in a twist about Xmas. Here's my $.02, for what it's worth.

Comments

[chloe_blue]

Linked to you from Fibromyalgia. I could not possibly agree with you more. Seriously, very well put. Happy third night of Hannukah.

[bunnygoth]

Hm, maybe I should change the name of the day. No, not to get you to celebrate it, you know I'm not like that, but it would help me personally to get the "Christ" out of it. Like...taking the secular and/or pagan elements and spinning off a newly named holiday for it, so Xians can have their Christ and I can have my holiday in peace. I think some kind of split is starting to happen, hence the fight over it, by both fundamentalist Xians and people like me who would universalize certain elements if they could, sans religion. How that'll end up I have no idea. Who would then celebrate what I have no idea.

This split should only take, uh, several centuries to get going. Guess I'd better hurry up!

Sorry, your comment about the name just made me think and then I started thinking out loud. I figured you wouldn't besmirch me for it. If any of the above was offensive, I didn't mean it.

[nex0s]

Hm, maybe I should change the name of the day. No, not to get you to celebrate it, you know I'm not like that, but it would help me personally to get the "Christ" out of it.

one of the people on my flist calls it "Giftmas" which while a bit cynical, i rather like, cuz, you know: PREZZIES! (i'm a total little kid :)

maybe Shinymas? Festival of Shiny Stuff? Lightmas? something that says: pretty shiny stuff! cookies! prezzies! snuggling! food coma! SHINY!

oh, and to tikvah, thank you for understanding the intent of my posts, when a lot of folk seem not to. i appreciate it. deeply.

n.

[awfief]

Santamas!

I do have to say, that while reading up on Hannukah (I had Presbyterian in-law-ish people come from Japan) I read about why we say some of the words in the prayers we have for Chanukah. Remember the first blessing has Baruch ata adonai, elohainu melech ha olam, -- Blessed be thou, o king of the world, who sanctifies us with his commandments. . . .

wait a minute!!! But it's not a biblical holiday, and thus it's not a COMMANDMENT to light the candles. So why do we have asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav?

"The Second Jewish Book of Why" says thusly:

"As stated above, blessings over nonbiblically-based actions do not contain the sanctification phrase. Notable exceptions to the rule are the blessings recited when kindling the Sabbath and Chanukah candles. In both instances asher kideshanu bemitzvotav is part of the prayers despite the fact that the kindling of candles on these occasions is not biblically mandated. The Bible requires that the Sabbath be observed but not that candles be lighted. And, of course, there is no

[tikvah]

I disagree that "Asher kideshane b'mitzvotav" makes Hanukkah a commanded holiday. I believe that those words simply indicated that those of us who celebrate Hanukkah are those of us who are chosen to be Am Yisrael, and those of us who are chosen to be Am Yisrael are those who are sanctified by G-d with the holy commandments.

We wouldn't be Jewish if we didn't have some differing opinions, now, would we?? ;-)

[neilfein]

PVP's take on all this. For the record, I agree with the guy behind the counter.

[tikvah]

Now THAT'S hilarious. You'll note that I held off making this post until after Xmas, and I cut it just so that people would know not to click on it unless they wanted an anti-Xmas rant. So I'm not exactly like the guy with the ponytail - I may *think* like him, but I'm not looking to get into anyone's face who didn't sign up to read an anti-Xmas rant.

[la_directora]

Which, by the way, is one of the reasons why my overall reaction to this post was, "Very interesting commentary," and not, "Wow, dude, thanks for raining all over my parade!" :) Though I find your descriptions of "typical" Christmas behavior to be what I've experienced as the loud, obnoxious minority stealing the spotlight from the more normal majority, I found what you had to say not all that ranty, and fairly reasonable. And your means of communicating the rant was very respectful, both to those who agree with you and those who don't.

[tikvah]

A discussion of faith vs belief gets into semantics both in English and in Hebrew translation. I'm not up for that at the moment - raincheck?

I actually like the concept of "having an idea" from Dogma. That's closer to my personal take on Judaism, anyway.

[rhonan]

Dogma has become my favorite religious movie. Saint Rufus had some good theological shit to share.

[plymouth]

Then, on or after the holiday, people brag about what they've been given or what they gave, with no sensitivity to the fact that there are probably people around them who could not afford to give such extravagant gifts, or who did not receive the gifts they wanted because their friends and families are of limited means.

My first conscious memory of this was when I was in 4th grade and our teacher asked us each to go around the room and say what our favorite christmas-or-hanukkah present was. One of my classmates got A HORSE. I didn't even want to play after that. I wasn't mad at the girl - it wasn't her fault. But the teacher was an idiot.