Getting into the Chanukah Spirit

Feeling remiss about not writing about the spirit of Chanukah in my blog I sat down to think about the holiday spirit in context of the holiday season. As a young child growing up in the 60s and 70s, Chanukah was a time for our family to gather with other family members and celebrate the Festival of Lights.

As the holiday is spread out over eight days and nights there is no one special designated time to celebrate and nowadays it is often difficult to find a night or time to get together with anyone outside our immediate family due to work, sports, etc. This year Chanukah coincides with Christmas week and it will be a bonus to have a few family days.

During Chanukah traditionally, Jewish families commemorate a victory of battle against the ancient Romans that took place close to 2000 years ago. During this conflict a great miracle occurred when the community had only a small amount of oil but it ended up lasting eight nights. This occurred during a time when brave soldiers called the Maccabees fought hard to protect their people and thus were able to win the battle. In modern days there have been much more significant battles and situations to commemorate, however, since this holiday falls so close to Christmas it has become to many the focal point of the Jewish festivals in an effort to equate the balance of holiday celebrations. 

When I grew up, my parents kept the holiday in perspective of being a minor festival. Although we do receive gifts, more important were the family gatherings that included recognizing the Miracle of Lights, playing the game of dreidl (a spinning top), eating potato latkes (fried potato pancakes), sophigarot (doughnuts fried in oil), and singing songs while lighting the menorah. Along with these festivities came the exchanging of gifts but this was not the focal point.

In today’s times the gift exchange has become the main purpose of the holiday to many. Some have no idea what we are really celebrating. For instance, I just had a package dropped off at my house by someone who lives three miles away (they said they wanted to be sure we had these in time for Chanukah). Wouldn’t it have been fun to have an excuse to get our families together over the holiday to celebrate together?

It was interesting to read in the weekend's Wall Street Journal that there is an effort to bring back spirit to the Festival of Lights. There is even as I stood earlier today in Trader Joes buying my latkes and menorah candles I was happy to learn that many are getting excited to bring the holiday back to Chanukah with family gatherings and activities. Maybe next year we will find time to have a “live” evening with our local family to light candles, eat traditional food and then exchange some gifts.