Growing up with Hanukkah
The Jewish Festival of Lights began on Tuesday night at sunset. It marked the beginning of Hanukkah. Now, how would a gal like me know anything about this Jewish celebration? I had a terrific childhood. My mom was a Boston, Irish Catholic. My dad was the son of a Carolina Baptist preacher. My sister and I were both raised as upright Catholics.
The kicker was that, because of our mother’s devout Catholic beliefs, a divorce from our dad was out of the question.
At age eight, a new man became an extremely important person in my life. I referred to him as Grampa. He was a brilliant attorney who also happened to be Jewish.
He was also a staunch Republican when Republicans were well respected.
While many people associate Hanukkah with Christmas, there is no association other than both are religious celebrations which happen to occur about the same time of year.
Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem to the authentic Jewish religion when the Maccabeans revolted against the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire between 167 B.C. and 160 B.C. The celebration lasts for eight nights. Since the Hebrew calendar differs from the Gregorian calendar we use, the timing is slightly offset from year to year.
Hanukkah, to me, was about lighting the menorah, eating my mother’s latkes, also known as potato pancakes, and playing dreidel. The fun part was a gift every day. To an eight-year-old, knowing Christmas was next was magical.
The story of Hanukkah began with the reign of Alexander the Great who conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine. He allowed the lands under his control to continue to observe their own religions and retain some autonomy. Many Jews assimilated much of Hellenistic culture, the language dress and other customs of the Greeks. No different than Jews in America today. After Alexander’s death, the macedoniam Empire splintered into a number of kingdoms, including Seleucid Empre.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the king of the Seleucid Empire from 175 B.C .until 164 B.C.
He began to oppress the Jews severely.
He massacred Jews, placed a Hellenistic priest in the Temple, prohibited the practice of the Jewish religion, and desecrated the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs on the altar.
Two groups opposed Antiochus, nationalists led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his son Judah Maccabee, and the Chasidim, a religious traditionalist group. They joined forces in a revolt against the assimilation of the Hellenistic Jews and oppression by the Seleucid Greek government. The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated.
The celebration is not for the military victory but the miracle of the oil.
The Greeks had defiled most of the oil needed for the menorah in the Temple, to burn throughout every night of Hannukah. There was only enough “sealed” oil to burn for one day, yet it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah.
An eight-day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle – The Festival of Light.
Today’s tradition begins at sunset with the lighting of the menorah, which is placed in the window to celebrate the miracle. For eight nights a candle is lit at sundown.
Another tradition of the celebration is playing dreidel, a gambling game played with a square spinning top. The traditional explanation of this game is that during Antiochus’ oppression, those who wanted to study Torah, an illegal activity, would conceal their activity by playing gambling games with a top whenever an official or inspector was within sight.
We played dreidel for chocolate gold coins known as gelt. A cute little ditty is sung too.
Growing up in this household introduced my sister and I to a different culture.
We had Easter, we had Passover, we had Christmas, and then we had Hanukkah. While Catholicism played a major role in our lives, we were fortunate to peek into this other cultural world. We had it all. I couldn’t have become a bigot if I tried.
Happy Hanukkah!
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