For thousands of years, Jews and Christians have celebrated
their traditions, customs, and holidays in this world. These two religious
groups, of course, have plenty aspects in common, as well as plenty of
differences. In this section, I would like to explore the origins of the
holidays, Christmas and Hanukkah. What makes these holidays near and dear to
the Christians and Jews, respectively? What makes them unique from each other
and similar to each other?
Christmas Origins:
According to Elizabeth A. Dice, in her book, Christmas
and Hanukkah, Christmas had a history of its own before the world
celebrated December 24th’s Eve and the 25th, Christmas
Day. In its origin, Christmas comes from “Christ’s mass.” To the Christians, it’s
a time of happy celebration and gathering in order to commemorate the birth of
Jesus Christ. The Christians agree with many things, such as the 39 books that
make up the Old Testament, but many disagree about whether or not Jesus Christ
is the Messiah, or “Chosen One,” that
the Hebrew Bible refers to.
In the New Testament, Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ
in Bethlehem. However, there was never a specified date to the birth. Since the
early days of the Church prohibited the celebrations of religious figures,
instead choosing to celebrate the day the people were killed instead, praising
martyrdom and straying from pagan traditions. Due to this, Good Friday, the day
of Jesus’s crucifixion was considered much more important than Christmas, along
with Easter, the day of Jesus’s resurrection. Only years later did the concept
of December 25th come to be. Thanks to the writings of Sextus Julis
Africanus, a Christian historian who attempted to combine biblical writings
with real historical texts, the perception of Creationism was changed.
Africanus insisted that the world was created on March 21st, with
the day God made light on March 25th. He continued to calculate
Jesus’s date of conception to be on March 25th, thousands of years
later. Thus, people assumed nine months later, December 25th, to be the
date of Jesus Christ’s birth. A theory that strengthens why this date was chosen
was because it shared the time of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the
year, and the marker that crops and farming would begin to increase in
productivity, thus gaining Pagan followers more easily.
In addition, in the 4th century CE, Christianity took
on the Saturnalia festival hoping in order to attract pagans. Christian leaders
succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising
them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. The
last day of the festival, December 25th, was held onto.
Pagan influences, of course, can be seen throughout the
Christmas ways. Mistletoe, for instance, is of Celtic origin. The idea of
hanging mistletoe was a Celtic custom.
Common Customs of Christmas:
On the Eve, families would often gather together in order to
have dinner and enjoy each other’s company. In the morning of the 25th,
gifts are exchanged, Christmas stockings are ravaged through, and children
expect their gifts from Santa Clause.
Traditional decorations include mistletoe, wreathes on doors
(roman origin), Red and Green colors, and emphasis on snow and huddling against
a warm fire! (This is more of a European – American style). And the Christmas
tree, evident by Rockefeller’s monstrous Evergreen, is a tradition that stems
from Europe in the 1600s Germany, which sprawled to the rest of the world.
Hanukkah Origins:
Hanukkah is the festival which commemorates the
purification and rededication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus on Kislev 25,
165 BC (roughly December). Three years before, Antiochus IV, the Seleucid
(Syrian) king, insulted the Temple by erecting an idol to Zeus and sacrificing
a pig on the alta. Some of the coins he minted had his features on the face of
Zeus along with the words “Theus Epiphanes” meaning “the god
manifest.” He continued to decree that Torah could not be studied under
penalty of death, circumcision was forbidden and the Sabbath, the Jewish day of
rest, wasn’t to be followed. This brought an internal struggle within Judaism
out in the open finally. On the one hand there were the observant Jews who
wanted to keep Torah, and on the other, the Hellenized Jews who wanted to
assimilate into the Greek culture around them and become forms of “born again” Greeks.
Antiochus sent troops from village to village with
a statue of himself ordering people to bow down to it, including Jews, who
refuse to acknowledge different idols. One day they arrived in the village of
Modi’im. An elderly man stepped forward to comply with the order, but an
observant priest, Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, thrust him through with a
spear and also killed one of the Seleucid soldiers. Thus began the Maccabean
revolt where Mattathias and his five sons and others fled into the Gophna Hills
to conduct a guerrilla war against the Seleucids, lasting for three years.
Finally, Jerusalem was liberated yet the Temple was defiled.
Rabbis recount the miracle of Hanukkah as thus:
“On Kislev 25 begin the Hanukka days, eight of them…When the Greeks
entered the Temple Sanctuary, they contaminated all the oil. When the
Hasmoneans defeated them, they searched and found only one cruse of oil bearing
the High Priest’s seal. This cruse had enough oil of only one day’s burning,
but a miracle came to pass and it lasted eight days. The following year, these
days were declared a holiday to be celebrated with the saying of Hallel and
thanksgiving prayers.” (Megillat Taanit) This is the reason they light one
additional candle each night on their candelabrum. (Menorah)
In addition to the martyrdom appraisal in
Christian faith, Hanukkah and Jews have similar figures. In the time of King
Antiochus IV, there is a story of a famous Jewish martyr named Hannah. She and
her seven sons were put before the King and subjected to violate their Judaic
principles. Versions of the story span between the prisoners being forced to
eat pork, bow down before false-idols, and other breaking of laws. At each
refusal, the king killed one of Hannah’s sons, starting from the oldest and
finally murdering Hannah herself. Martyrs, over time, have given the Jewish
people role models and courage through the ages.
Customs and Notes
First, I thought it would be interesting to note how
Hanukkah begins its 8 nights on the 25th of the Hebrew month,
Kislev.
Symbols of Hanukkah include the menorah, the dreidel, and
even a Christmas tree rival: the Hanukkah bush.
Legends say that the dreidel was used by the Maccabees in
order to fool Syrians into thinking that they were spending their free time
playing games. While in reality, they were actually studying Jewish texts.
In general, Jewish families convene for dinners during the
Chanukkah nights, and on each successful night, small gifts are traditionally
exchanged on each night. The gifts are generally small and trivial, unlike
Christmas gifts, but some families go “the whole nine years” on the gifts as
well.
Some argue that Hanukkah’s commercialism and significance to
the Jewish people is a recent phenomena…almost a challenge to the Christ
counter-part, Christmas.
As a whole, in comparison of Hanukkah to Christmas elements,
Hanukkah’s celebrations regard the survival of the Jewish people and the
troubles and challenges they’ve strived against throughout history. Christmas,
however, is related to a more spiritual event, and the religious connotations
of Jesus Christ. However, mainstream ideas, of course, exist as well. Such as
the idea that Hanukkah and Christmas, in the end, (especially to the children),
are all about the presents.
