Comparing Christmas And Hanukkah

Many families during the month of December are busy shopping for Christmas presents, decorating a Christmas tree, and getting ready for Santa Clause. For those families celebrating Hanukkah this can conclude of preparing Latkes, singing Ma’Oz Tzur, and lighting the candles of the Menorah.

There are six Jewish holidays. Which are the Jewish New Year or Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Purim, the Passover, the Shavout, and the Sukkot. According to Julianne Jacques during Hanukkah as a child her family would sing the Jewish Version of the twelve days of Christmas. She didn’t sing it for me but she told me that it goes like this “10 are the Commandments 9 are the festivals, 8 are the lights of Han, 7 days of the week, 6 days of creation, 5 books of Moses, 4 mothers of Israel, 3 Patriarchs, 2 tables of covenant and 1 God.” Jewish Americans celebrate all of these holidays with pride of their heritage.

Christianity and Judaism have many similarities and differences within their religions. Traditions play various roles and integrate through their beliefs, values, cultures, and making political decisions. Christianity and Judaism have changed historically throughout time. Judaism and Christianity rely on the basic standard of obeying God, an adherence to his rules and intentions and their faithful fulfillment.

Christians commonly celebrate the New Year January 1st, according to the Julian calendar; For orthodox Christians whom follow the Gregorian calendar New Year is marked on January 14th or sometime around that date. (Christian Observances and Rituals) Orthodox or not the New Year is a day celebrated most Christians, many attending mass. Another commonly celebrated day is, “Epiphany Sunday, commonly known as Three Kings’ Day in the United States, is on January 6. It celebrates the three wise men’s visit to baby Jesus and also remembers his baptism, according to the Christian Bible’s events. The United States (US) Virgin Islands observe the day as a public holiday.” (Epiphany in the United States) On this day children, bake cookies and cakes in honor of the Three Wise Men. This day is exactly twelve days after Christmas, another Christian

The central focus and purpose of teaching this learning segment is to educate students about other holidays and cultures, but specifically focusing on Christmas in Italy. While this unit is essentially literacy based, it is also linked to Social Studies when students use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of themes, traditions, and stories in different countries. This unit supports diversity within the classroom and it will expose students to the different ways of celebrating holidays among various cultures. The essential literacy strategy used throughout this unit is to analyze, explain, and describe the similarities and differences between Christmas in Italy and Christmas in their own home in the United States. The students are required to examine the way Christmas is celebrated in Italy in a variety of different ways, through both teacher directed guidance and student centered learning.]

Like Thanksgiving, Christmas also has their main dish and it’s a huge oven cooked ham that is complimented by very many side dishes but never the less followed up by the famous Christmas time eggnog. Both wonderful holidays put up magnificent feasts for family and loved ones to gather around and enjoy.

There are similarities and differences between Christmas in America and Christmas in Italy. The Christmas holiday originated with the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25, a day around the shortest day of the year. Therefore, the main reason we celebrate the holiday is to celebrate Christ's birthday. Another reason for celebrating Christmas includes the changing of the seasons and the days that will become short before becoming long again. The shortest day, not necessarily falling on Christmas, is Winter Solstice which happens also to be a Pagan, agricultural holiday to mark the changes is the seasons. Most simply, we celebrate Christmas across the world as inspiration to imitate ethical behaviors of Christ who unconditionally loved all men and women regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds.

She makes the case with more people coming together to share their practices in honouring the holiday becomes subverted, moving away from sectarian Christian origins to form a holiday that maintains communal bonds through common celebration. The adoration of the Dutch Santa Claus and the German Christmas tree bring together diverse cultures in the public consciousness, becoming public representations of Christian ideals without having to embody all the religious conditions found within the church. Opening the holiday for celebration from participants not expressing exclusively Christian attitudes, yet subtly reminds the public of the principled Christian nature of the holiday through charity, community, and gift

There is no doubt that Christmas is a religious event but nowadays Christmas becomes more commercialized, as it has been defined as a high consumption season because the gifts giving culture becomes the most important part of Christmas and the consumers want to please their children

Most of Kevin’s family is Lutheran and because of this they make Christmas and Easter huge events. During the whole month of December, Kevin’s family home has Christmas everywhere you turn, with decorations, Christmas trees, and nativity scenes everywhere in their house. In a ways, they almost bleed Christmas and it culminates with the family going to Christmas Eve service and then having a large Christmas Eve feast with many members of the family attending. They then end the holiday by going to the Christmas service at their church and eating the leftovers of the feast from the night before. Easter happens in the exact same way except Kevin’s family goes for the more religious aspect of the holiday then what they do with Christmas because they believe that it is with Easter that their faith is strengthened and can be supported with evidence. Even though food is a big part of his family traditions around the holidays, there is not central dish that accompanies every holiday meal. For the most part it is the basics of ham, potatoes and other traditional holiday food that his family

The Jewish community is distinguished by a rich history, rooted in traditions that have been in place for thousands of years, many customs, and possibly the most are dietary in nature. Foods like potato latkas1, falafel2, and fried doughnuts are traditionally eaten during my favorite festival, Chanukah3, a Jewish festival that commemorates the miracle of the anointing oil that burned for eight days during the rededication process of the Temple in Jerusalem.4

Let’s start with the first Tradition. The first tradition is “ The burning of the Devil”. The burning of the devil started a long time ago. They start this tradition on December 7th and then they celebrate Christmas on December 28th. They normally do this because if they don’t they believe that the devil will be hiding under there bed if they don’t.

The traditions were considered heathen and pagan symbols by some like William Bradford. In 1659 observance of December 25 outside of church was against the law and you were fined for hanging decorations. But we can thank Queen Victoria for bringing a Christmas tree to her Windsor Castle in 1848. And the tradition was born in England, Canada and the United States. Although Germans used a small 4 foot tree in height, while Americans like the grandeur of a tree from floor to ceiling. Popular decorations were apples, nuts and marzipan cookies. Popcorn was interlaced with berries and nuts after being dyed bright colors. And soon after Martin Luther a Protestant Christian was said

Christmas is the annual festival celebrating the birth of Jesus on the 25th December, at least that is what it began as initially. Since it has expanded into an international phenomenon for consumption, taking priority over our everyday practices of life (Michel De Certeau, 1980). Our time we spend divided between work and leisure in accordance to the codes and conventions of society shifts, Christmas derails these expectations. Yet surprisingly Christmas gains little attention in terms of social research, despite the fact that it can be explored diversely. The inquiry ‘What is Christmas?’ links to multiple aspects of social research. The aspects of Christmas can be subdivided into the following; religion, commercialism, gift-giving, social relationships, sensualism and mythology. This essay will analyse these fundamentals of Christmas through both psychological and sociological perspectives, as the theories among these two social sciences are best suited to the elements which make up Christmas itself.

Passover and Easter also have representational art and iconography that are displayed in how the religious festivals are celebrated by Jewish people and Christians.