http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/duanwuholiday/

I created a separate site instead of a page for my holiday. I’ll continue to update my info on the site. Hope you all find it interesting. =)

Added a bunch of info to my page, feedback please!

Cinco de Mayo

I would like this picture to be my icon for the Dragon Boat Festival. =)

I was able to build the working iPhone model in Apple’s iWeb software, then uploaded it to a free hosting site. I wasn’t sure of everyone’s holidays, and all the links aren’t final but I thought I’d at least make a dummy model. Here is the link:

http://www.rosenbergidcproject.tk/

This is the website that I talked about.

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 24^th’s Eve and the 25^th, 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 25^th 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 21^st, with
the day God made light on March 25^th. He continued to calculate
Jesus’s date of conception to be on March 25^th, thousands of years
later. Thus, people assumed nine months later, December 25^th, 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 4^th 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 25^th, 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 25^th,
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 25^th 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.

I was googling some of the best WordPress websites (since that’s the technology we are using) to get some ideas for our website design and came across the following:

Lindsey Breeden
I really liked the iPhone navigation that is on the front page of this website. I am not exactly sure how it pertains to the whole holiday idea but it is very hip as well as visually appealing. I thought each of our holidays could serve as a different “app.” I think we have around 16 holidays, which fits perfectly into the 16 icon grid that is on the screen. Running along the bottom, where you keep your more important apps, we could have the “Introduction,” “About Us,” “Calendar,” and “World Map” pages that we discussed in class. Making the iPhone, as well as the separate iCons, shouldn’t be a problem and is a project that I can overtake. Again I am not sure how this works with the holiday theme, but something that could work very well given our topic and pages.

visualquimia
This website seems like something that very well fits what we talked about in class. I like how all the pictures are of uniform shape and style (black and white with a pattern overlay). I also like the rollover function, how when the mouse hovers over a particular picture, it changes the picture’s color, as well as displays text. This website seems very clean and visually attractive.

Creative Ad Awards
I really like the slideshow that takes up the majority of this page. It allows each of our holidays to get a dedicated, full frame picture. I particularly like how the user has the freedom to click on any picture they want with the bar running along the bottom. The user can click on any holiday it wants, showing them a full frame picture of that holiday, in which they can click on taking them to the page of that holiday.

These are just some ideas that I found online. I particularly favor the iPhone idea because it very much so works with our pages. Stuff like a calendar and a map are actual apps on the iPhone. It looks really cool and is neat, organized, and visually appealing. The UI (user interface) is also something that everyone, or close to everyone, is familiar with.

Also, I like to consider myself pretty proficient in Adobe Photoshop so if anyone needs any sort of manipulation of a still photograph, I can help. I am an avid photograph and edit a lot of pictures.

Look forward to hearing everyone’s comments and getting started on the actual design

Quick Mockup of what our class iPhone would look like:

American Muslims: the new generation

I think American Muslims will start seeing themselves as leaders. They will become more active and stop looking to mosques to support the community. In addition, American Muslims will not be ashamed to take time out of work to pray or take a day off from work because it’s Eid. (Eid al-Fitr, the major Islamic holiday ending Ramadan, the month of daily fasting) They ill do these things because they want to fulfill their Islamic duties but also because they want other Americans to accept their religion. They want to show that they are Muslims in their behavior and that they are not ashamed of being Muslim in the same way that Christians are not ashamed to take off from work for Christmas or to go to church to pray. For as much as the American Muslim community has grown, we will need to grow even more to accomplish goals we have set for ourselves, particularly dispelling stereotypes about Islam and gaining acceptance of our religion (p.47)

The fourth pillar of Islam, and perhaps the most widely known, is swam. In the Islamic month of Ramadan, the month in which God began to reveal the Qur’an, obviously a very holy month for Muslims, Muslims abstain from food, drink and sex from sunrise to sunset with the exception of those who are medically unable, women during the week of their menstruation or if pregnant and those traveling. They can make up these days later in the year. This fast is required so that Muslims will learn self-control and cleanse themselves. Muslims are also supposed to learn what it is like for those who suffer from hunger. Muslims believe that prayers to God throughout this month and on particular nights within this month will be given special attention by God. At the end of the month, Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr, a holiday equivalent in religious importance to Hanukkah or Christmas. Muslim families usually have a banquet and make a contribution to local poor people, usually a lamb sacrificed in contribution to local poor people, usually a lamb sacrificed in God’s name. Habiba Husain, a Muslim woman in San Francisco, feels charity is particularly important during Ramadan and stays quite busy with her organization, Rahima Foundation, delivering food to one hundred needy families during Ramadan and every month. (p.60)

Eid Muslims- Muslims who only attend mosque on major holidays like Eid. Many first generation Muslim immigrant are worried about their children will grow as Eid Muslims or grow out of Islam in general. (p.140)

Muslims have made significant progress on being recognized symbolically, perhaps more so than any other group in the past few years. In the fall of 1995, Vice President Albert Gore became the highest ranking US official to visit a mosque. A few months later, Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke in LA to a group of Muslims, the first First Lady to address a gathering of Muslims outside the White House. President Clinton’s July 12, 1995 speech on religious freedom acknowledged Muslims several times. African-American Muslim leaders Siraj Wahhaj and Warith Deen Muhammad delivered invocations in the House and Senate, respectively. Friday prayers are now held regularly in the U.S. Capitol building for Muslim staffers, federal employees, and other Muslims in the area. Since 1998, a crescent and star is displayed on the White House lawn alongside a menorah and Christmas tree, thanks to the tireless efforts of the late Muhammed Mehdi of New York, who popularized the idea of USA: Muslim Day, falling on the third Friday of December. President George Bush began a tradition of wishing Muslims a happy holiday on Eid, which President Clinton has expanded upon by holding an Eid celebration in the White House, usually attended by Ms. Clinton. In fact, American Muslims are indebted to the Clintons for their embracing of Islam in the US, Islamic traditions, and visiting Islamic countries. The Clintons have done more than any other First Family to raise the public stature of Muslims, especially American Muslims, and to draw a distinction between Muslim radicals and the beauty of true Islam as practiced by 1.2 billion people. At the January 10, 2000, Eid al-Fitr reception at the White House, President Clinton became the first sitting president to meet with American Muslim leaders. He said, “Too many Americans still know too little about Islam, now practiced by one of every four people.”

Symbolic recognition is important because such actions, in America, create a distinction, politically and socially, between the majority of Muslims, who are mainstream, and the more controversial Muslims like Farrakhan of NOI and extremist groups. Hopefully this symbolic recognition will lead to more political recognition and influence. (p.153)

…But we as Muslims and Americans, should remind ourselves that, while donating is not wrong or band, voting is the cheapest and the most democratic way to have influence. Every Muslim can and should vote (p.154)

The rising influence of American Muslims:

I call this re-discovery of Islam by American and Western Muslims the second Golden Age of Islam. The first Golden Age was so characterized because Islam flourished: Islam spread throughout the globe from the seventh century onward, and Muslims were the foremost scholars and thinkers of the world. The Muslims of history contributed to civilization in a number of ways: in algebra and geometry, with the creation of the number zero, in modern navigation, and architectural design, among many other advances. I predict that the second Golden Age of Islam will be so designated for primarily two reasons: because of the inner growth and strengthening of faith of Western Muslims and the successful adaptation of those Muslims to Western life without compromising their beliefs.

This Golden Age of Islam will occur primarily in the US because Muslims in America are more comfortable than in other Western nations. Americans are not strongly anti-Islamic, as some English and French are, and in America, Muslims are assured freedom of thought and practice under the First Amendment. This freedom will lead to greater participation in, and therefore greater influence on, American society. (p.178)

Eid Muslims: who attend mosque on the two major Muslim holidays.

Islam in America:

Muslim students enrolled at other American colleges and universities are becoming increasingly vocal in their efforts to gain recognition for themselves and their community. These efforts, supported by national groups such as the Muslim Student Association (MSA), are bringing results. Syracuse University has recognized “eid al-fitr at the end of Ramadan as an official school holiday, and the entire university closes for the day. At Syracuse and Harvard Universities, Islamically permissible meat is available to students on demand. (p.133)

Increasing numbers of organizations at both the national and local levels concentrate specifically on the political arena. The American Muslim Council (AMC) in Washington D.C. is a nonprofit, sociopolitical organization established in 1990 that works to promote ethical values among Muslims and the educate voters about the electoral process.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton now regularly invites the AMC to hose an “eid al-fitr celebration at the White House. The AMC is campaigning for official recognition of the two Islamic ‘eids as national holidays and hopes that the US postal system will issue ‘eid stamps by the year 2000. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is a bipartisan organization that also concentrates on voter education, helping Muslims understand the issues and how to make political decisions within the context of Islam. The MPAC is present at both political party conventions.

For Sunni Muslims, authoritative word regarding the beginning and the end of Ramadan comes from Saudi Arabia, where the religious sheikhs make this determination. When the end of Ramadan is announced, the great Eid al-Fitr (Feast of the Breaking of the Fast) begins a three- or four-day celebration, one of the largest and most joyous of the Muslim holidays. New Clothes are sewn or purchased for children, streets are decorated with bright lights, and children in Egypt carry lanterns as they go about the streets wishing people “Happy ‘Id!
Adults greet each other with similar expressions of good wishes, “’Id Sa’eed (Happy Holidays)” or “Sana Jadida Sa’eeda (Happy New Year).”

Traditionally, a sheep or goat was purchased by the family and slaughtered for the holiday however, with rising inflation and the increased cost of living, the purchase of an entire animal has become prohibitively expensive for many middle-class families. They may settle for a portion of meat from the butcher or share with the extended family in the purchase of an animal for slaughter. The killing of the animal must be carried out by a skilled Muslim butcher, who cuts the animal’s throat and allows it to bleed to death in the prescribed Islamic fashion. Other portions of the meat are set-aside as gifts for family, neighbors, and the poor as a traditional form of charitable behavior.

The ‘Id al-Fitr is one of the national holidays in predominantly Muslim countries during which intense socializing and celebration take place. It is probably the closest thing socially to the Christmas holiday in the West, although its religious meaning is unrelated and the materialism we have come to associate with Christmas is lacking. But socially It (31)  is a time of great coming together and marks the culmination of Islam’s great annual collective rituals.

Works Cited

Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn. Islamic Society in Practice. Gainesville, Fla. [u.a.: Univ. Pr. of Florida, 1995. Print.

Hasan, Asma Gull. American Muslims: the New Generation. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print.

Smith, Jane I. Islam in America. New York, NY: Columbia UP, 2010. Print.

1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-14-eid13_ST_N.htm

Ramadan changes ever year according to the Islamic Lunar Calendar, and this USA TODAY article addresses Muslim community’s concern about celebrating Eid-al-fitr last year due to its proximity to 9/11.

2. http://www.jinnahsequaid.com/7452/eid-ul-fitr-muslims-islamic-festival/

This website provides a thorough and concise introduction to Eid-al-Fitr. Attn: anyone who wants to have more general background about Eid al-Fitr, this might be what you are looking for!