I’m dreaming of a secular Christmukkah
Okay, not really. But I figured, hey, time to bitch about the war-on-Christmas we-prefer-holiday-tree. There are lots of thoughtful discussions around, so I won’t bother with that.
First, I’m lumping everyone who believes in Christ as the saviour together as Christian. If you don’t like it, show me how you’ve carefully differentiated between different groups of people who are in other religions, and I will be shocked. Then I will do nothing, because see above about not bothering with thoughtful. Seriously, for the purposes of discussing Christmas, it’s close enough. I am not going to differentiate between different types of Jews, and I’m not even going to mention other religions.
Recently in our lovely local paper, there was a discussion about how — alas! — Christmas and Chanukah fall on the same night this year for the fourth time in a century or the first time since 1954 or whatever and people don’t know what to do. I was puzzled for a while, because Chanukah is EIGHT days long, and so I am sure they hit each other more often than that. Then I realised they meant that the first night of Chanukah[1] was Dec 25 this year, to which I continued to think who cares, because Chanukah is still eight days long, just celebrate it on the last night, which is more fun because there are more candles anyhow.
This article was about interfaith couples, where one is Christian and one Jewish, or where at least one parent of is Christian and celebrated it. So we had all the rabbis saying “No! You must choose one!” and honestly, I’d choose Christmas over Chanukah, but Passover over Easter, so that’s probably a bad way to go. Plus, you know, if they’re raising the kids Jewish, a Christmas tree isn’t going to taint them with goy, and it’s something important to the other parent, obviously. Respect towards your parents and their traditions is a good thing. The article was just idiotic, so I will move on.
Now we can go to carols. I like Christmas carols. They are very pretty, most of them, and I don’t really listen that much, so I don’t get sick of them. There are, however, no really nice Chanukah songs. Oh there are some that are okay to sing if you’re in elementary school, but at some point we can give up on ‘I have a little dreidel’. If you insist on singing them, I rather like Maoz Tzur. (Why? I don’t know.) In summary: Carol of the Bells, yes; How many candles?, no.
Christmas[2] trees. They’re not secular. Seriously. They’re very pretty, and I’ve enjoyed going to tree decorating parties, and I go and look at really nicely decorated ones, and I don’t mind not seeing Chanukah stuff (though I always appreciate it if I do see it), and I am all for having decorated Christmas trees around, even on public property. Yes, for you personally they might be secular. That’s nice. Are you any religion at all other than Christian? Hint: if your family is full of atheists, find the last religion that your family celebrated. You can say that it has no religious overtones to you, and fine, whatever, who am I to judge. But it’s not up to you to then say that therefore, it is secular for everyone. Yes, I know it’s not religious like crosses and creches are. But it’s also not just Happy Winter like snow.
Also, there is no need to wish me Merry Christmas earlier than Dec 24 or later than Dec 26. Just say Happy Holidays, and pretend you are remembering that not everyone actually celebrates Christmas, and act as if you realised that December/January holds whole loads of holidays — including but not limited to Christmas.
Happy Holidays.
[1] Jewish days start at sundown, so celebrations start the night before the first day. Which makes calendars obnoxious, because half the time ‘First day of Passover’ means first day and the other half it means first seder. Jewish calendars invariably choose the first, but secular ones are less clear.
[2] I will not, however, play the etymology game. The Christmas in Christmas tree is a clue, yes, but somehow this leaves people arguing that holiday *used to mean* holy day and goodbye *used to mean* god be with you. Just go look at the past tense there.
December 18th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Very good point about the general mediocrity of Hanukkah songs compared to Christmas carols. I know it would be rhetorically silly of me to compare Handel’s Messiah to “I Had A Little Dreidel” but I’ll admit to thinking about comparing them.
Passover has all the good songs, anyway.
December 18th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
What??? You mean Jewish people don’t have secular Chanukah trees in your living rooms??? You don’t have secular Chanukah wreaths on your doors? You don’t have secular Chanukah lights decorating your porches and roofs and lampposts??? You don’t have secular Chanukah sleighs in your front yards??? You don’t sing secular Chanukah songs about a red-nosed caribou???
#
Well, that just spoils the whole secular holiday. :(
December 18th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
I always assumed the holidays in “happy holidays” included such things as New Year’s day. Although in grade school I can remember jokingly saying things like “Merry New Year’s!” and “Happy Christmas!”
December 18th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
That would be like comparing Handel’s Judas Maccabeus to “Jingle Bells”!
December 18th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
Well, you put so many links in there that I don’t know where yuo stand and I don’t want to insult anyone you linked to, particularly since I no longer have a blog. And I read this several times and I still don’t know where you stand. It looks like your Jewish friends get it. I’m not sure I do.
That said, I noticed that the principal of T&G’s school closed her memo with a “Merry Christmas” and I thought that was unnecessarily restrictive and close-minded about the way recipients may be spending holidays. That *always* pisses me off. And as for the distinction among Christians, well, there’s been enough persecution over the years that ought to count for something. Maybe you and I don’t see it, but history certainly says otherwise. Protestantism and Catholicism were battling long after one would think, even in this country.
As for the etymological on holiday: I don’t understand your beef with that at all. The OED provides a solid basis for it.
December 19th, 2005 at 7:47 am
In grade school, I said things like Merry Chanukah, to piss off the teachers. (Many things I did in elementary school were done for just that reason.)
Michelle, I do not agree with everything in those links, but they’re all discussions of the “what to do in December if you’re Jewish?” theme. Mostly I’m trying to say that the trees and lights and Santa are not secular, and don’t try to act as if they are.
I grant there are distinctions between Christians, a few I know about and many I do not. But I don’t think they are relevant for this discussion, just like the distinctions between Jews are not relevant. I brought it up because there were complaints on TDM about this glomming together of Christians, which is fine, except that it was by people who glom together all sorts of other religions.
The etymology game bores me. Holiday *used to mean* holy day. But it does not anymore, and it doesn’t tell us anything useful about the word’s meaning today.
December 19th, 2005 at 8:18 am
Well, I agree with your main point that all that stuff is not secular (and I could make an argument much like yours on the *used to mean* ;0), but I also understand how people tend to see these as secular because it’s the flashy, the bright, the taking, the commercial aspect of Christmas that is wound up in crap like decorating a tree and what’re ya gonna get from Santa.
Bored by etymology?! Oh Wolfa!
December 19th, 2005 at 9:43 am
Being bored by etymology as argument (which works on the tacit assumption that ‘original meaning’ == ‘true meaning’) is not quite the same as being bored by etymology.
December 19th, 2005 at 9:53 am
My point is that the people who see this as secular aren’t Jews or Muslims or people brought up in some religious tradition which isn’t Christianity. (Well, MS’s point, too.)
Q, true. I am not a huge fan of etymology in general, I find it’s fairly boring, and I should have said rather that etymology as argument is not a reasonable argument. But see above about not bothering with thoughtful.
December 20th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
Well, Q. Pheevr, we could compare the Messiah to Judas Maccabeus, but Hanukkah would still get the short end of the stick.
December 22nd, 2005 at 7:18 am
What is unusual is that my daughter’s Hindu friends all have Christmas trees.
But it is strange to me that people should think that the symbols (other than the commercial ones) are secular. Or that Happy Holidays is inadequate. On the other hand, I’m all for celibrating as many holidays as we have friends in the area to celibrate them with.
Though the friend who served ham at sedar seemed a little off base.
December 22nd, 2005 at 10:23 am
I am up for celebrating them with you. I have non-Jews at my celebrations (one of whom once brought Timbits to a seder, which is worse than ham, I think), and appreciate being invited to other ones. They’re just not mine.
I think the problem is the multiple meanings of secular, a word ill-defined in this debate. It’s not *religion-neutral*, but it may or may not be religious.
December 26th, 2005 at 8:30 am
The final issue I’ve had with the “historical” approach is that the old tradition in the United States was that Christmas was a papist innovation that should be shunned and that got people placed in the stocks for public humiliation if they were caught in the observation of it.
The real explosion came with the Coca-Cola marketing move and the modern Santa Claus (vs. St. Nikolas, a nice Greek historical figure with an observed, but not required, feast day).
The modern tangle of commercialism has created a major issue, down to making the Festival of Lights into a major holiday in the States, which can puzzle visitors.
I’m not familiar with Timbits … guess I need to google them, and avoid them ;)