Tonight, at sundown, begins the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah, which celebrates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC after the Maccabees successfully rebelled against their Syrian-Greek rulers.
Given its proximity to Christmas — and Hanukkah goes on for eight nights — it is a bit of a shame that more is not made of it publicly (although London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, will be lighting a giant menorah in Trafalgar Square this evening).
As Mehdi Hasan writes in this week’s cover story, Jesus is a revered prophet for Muslims — which really ought to be obvious and well known, but too often what religions have in common is overlooked in favour of what divides them. This doesn’t have to be the way, and given that Hanukkah precedes both Christianity and Islam, it could be something in which all Abrahamic faiths participate. In fact, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre organised just such an event two years ago when it flew a group of Indonesian Muslim clerics to Israel where, among other things, they lit candles with yeshiva students.
In America, of course, things are different. The conjunction of Christmas with Hanukkah has given rise to the idea of “Chrismukkah”, popularised particularly by the US television series The OC, and leading to books and greeting cards with messages such as this:
“Deck the halls
with lots of tchotchkes,
Fa la la la la la la la la la.
Tis the season to eat latkes,
Fa la la la la la la la L’Chaim!”
Some suggest that Chrismukkah is just a commercial confection but, even though they’re obviously not theologically profound, or even sound, I think such joint festivities can only be for the good. In Malaysia and Singapore, for instance, when the Hindu Deepavali (or Diwali) is proximate to Eid ul-Fitr, which Malays call Hari Raya, all sorts of schools and organisations celebrate these together as “Deepa-Raya”. This does not replace separate Muslim and Hindu ceremonies, but its importance is not to be underestimated in a region where racial and religious divisions are, unfortunately, increasingly being emphasised.
Surely the point is that all these festivals, whether they be Eid, Diwali, Christmas, or the Winter Solstice, should be positive occasions that dare speak their name. No one really likes “Winterval”, do they? President Obama has already got himself into a little trouble by inviting guests to “a holiday occasion” next week — when in fact the event is the annual White House Hanukkah party.
On a happier note, I’ll end by leaving you this link to some charming Hanukkah stories by Yoni Brenner in the New Yorker. I particularly liked the first two.
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