Hanumas... what a dumb name. It sounds more like a terrorist organization than a holiday.
Keep Significance of Holidays
Growing trend to combine Hanukkah and Christmas can have detrimental effects
Jennifer Bain reports on the growing trend in Canada of interfaith families combining Channukah and Christmas into a hybrid mishmash. While this may be a perfectly logical notion for some, it is important to note that there are detrimental effects of doing so. Ask my professor’s daughter who was taught to believe in the “Moses Claus” as a child, and now does not know what to believe in.
Channukah is called so for a reason - it is the Hebrew word for rededication. Channukah is the time when Jews celebrate and remember the rededication of the ancient holy Temple after its horrific destruction. To alter the word to "Chrismukkah," or "Hanumas," lessens the significance of the holiday. It erases the true meaning of the word, and presents a distorted version of the holiday.
While there is much that non-Jews can learn by celebrating Channukah with Jewish friends and family, and vice-versa regarding Christmas, it is of paramount importance to remember that Channukah is a Jewish holiday and Christmas is a Christian holiday. To combine them is to misrepresent the true meaning of each holiday.
To truly increase tolerance and knowledge of dual cultural heritages, interfaith families should learn about each holiday individually and uniquely, rather than attempting to assimilate them into an entirely new celebration which is no longer grounded in its true roots. This is especially true for interfaith families with children – let them be taught about each religion’s traditions rather than a new hodgepodge. Doing so will only breed a generation of children who believe in the Moses-Claus who comes down the chimney to light the Channukiah and eats the Latkes left on the table.
Jesse Paikin
Thornhill, Ontario
1 comment:
Congrats on being published! And yay for freedom of speech!
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