How important is Hanukkah?

Calling it a Hallmark holiday is a bit of an insult, it does mark a historic event that borders on the miraculous.

It is not considered a major holiday, because it is not “biblical” but rather “rabbinic”. Major holidays are marked by customs such as restrictions on work and very specific meals and ritual. There is little formal ritual to Hanukkah other than lighting the candles.

You really need to ditch that roomie.

I know plenty of Christians who would say the same thing about Christmas.

Some people make a big deal about cultural holidays, some don’t.

The biggest thing about religion is that whatever you say you are, you are, regardless of what other members of the group think about it. That’s how we get schisms that lead to 30,000+ denominations.

Some believers in the Jewish faith keep kosher and the Sabbath and celebrate Chanukah. Some are more secular and don’t get into it. To each their own.

From an objective standpoint, zenvelo is right on the money. The holiday was deliberately elevated in stature by the rabbis because of its place on the calendar. The gift giving and other “traditions” were invented to counter the corrosive influence of Christmas on a diaspora submerged in a sea of Christians.

It’s important when you are 5 years old and all your friends have Santa coming to town.

It’s not a major holiday, but we turned it into one partly because if you commercialize it business makes money, and partly, like I mentioned above, so Jewish kids don’t feel left out at holiday time in a country whose majority is celebrating Christmas.

I would assume still in Israel they don’t do gift giving on Chanukah except for some money maybe? Maybe they have started doing gift giving at this point too, I don’t know? My FIL didn’t do any gifts on Chanukah in Mexico growing up.

Other Jewish holidays are much more important and more holy. Chanukah celebrates a very nice miracle of the lights, but isn’t from the Old Testsment, it’s after the fact having to do with a story about a moment in time in history.

Your roommate isn’t a bitch because of this, she is teaching you something. Almost everyone picks and chooses how they celebrate or adhere to their religion and holidays. Would you say such a thing to someone who celebrates Christmas, but never goes to church? A big percentage of Jews don’t keep kosher, it’s totally fine with reform rabbis, they don’t either usually. You are wrong about how you are thinking about this. I’m glad you asked the question.

@chyna Did you mean to put a tilde?

The story of Hanukkah comes fairly late in Jewish history, around 200 BCE. Unlike the biblical stories, we know that the events celebrated during Hanukkah actually took place. The Jews freed themselves from the Greeks and Israel remained independent for a brief period before Roman rule and the Diaspora. Historically, Hanukkah was considered a minor holiday. See, for example, here under the Traditions section.

The Maccabees set themselves up as a monarchy in Israel and were not particularly well liked. The division into pharisees and sadducees ties into the formation of Christianity. Link

@jleslie No. The poster seems to really dislike the roomie. See her other question. So to keep her life peaceful, she should ditch the roomie.

It’s more of a children’s holiday and family holiday. Not major in a religious sense and has assumed more importance as a counterweight to Christmas as has been said. Your roommate was right except that I wouldn’t say “real” Jews. Why disparage someone else?

In some countries, Hanukkah is celebrated by catching dogs and sacrificing them. So you had better take care of your pet during Hanukkah.

Just kidding.

But @chyna makes the correct observation. You have issues with this roomie anyway. Are you looking for reasons to be pissed off?

Thanks for the answers, everyone! Very enlightening. My college roomie was Hasidic, so I guess @janbb nailed it, the use of “real” Jews by a chick that eats bacon and buys Christmas gifts got to me, and I wanted to know more.

It all started because I offered to use blue lights and a Star of David on my Christmas tree to show some recognition for her holiday, too, since I recalled her telling me she was Jewish. She informed me Jews don’t even have trees (duh) and that “real” Jews don’t celebrate Hanukkah…

@LostInParadise LOL… You mentioned the Maccabees and I realized my Hanukkah knowledge all comes from Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy. But don’t tell my parents I said that…

@elbanditoroso Thank you for pointing out I may be looking for things to irritate me. Why should I care what she celebrates?

Yes, at the time I need the extra income. Work gave me a 15% pay cut in August and took away our holiday bonus. It doesn’t make financial sense to pay my whole mortgage alone right now. I’ve lived alone for years, so I want it my way. I really try to separate what is me nitpicking, but sometimes she drives me nuts.

But with her contribution I will be starting 2016 with no debts other than my mortgage. Woo-hoo! That hasn’t been the case for 8 years!

I feel that sometimes people (some people) may throw out controversial opinions to get a rise out of others. They throw out these thoughts that could just as easily be kept to themselves, in the hopes that they will elicit an emotion or a conversation. Maybe she is also feeling irritated and is doing some passive aggressive commenting to start some sh**.

@chyna I remember her other question, I just didn’t see why the roommate explaining Chanukah has only been commercialized recently was a reason to hate her. I thought you were being harsh or sarcastic maybe. The roommate is correct about Chanukah (sort of) although some jellies picked up in her use of “real” Jews as some sort of reason to be annoyed with what she said. I didn’t take it that way, but I see how some people might. I just took real Jews to mean observant or orthodox.

@AdventureElephants I think it’s a lesson that just because there is tension between people doesn’t mean everything the other person says is bullshit. I have to remind myself of this at times too. If I’m aggravated enough with some ongoing then everything they say I begin to question, or don’t want to hear. My patience wears thin.

I also was raised with no Christmas tree and the idea of a Chanukah bush (that’s what they used to say when I was younger, I don’t know if they say it still) was kind of weird or really missing the mark to me. It’s a CHRISTmas tree. Christians would say, “the tree is secular,” but I saw it as a symbol of CHRISTmas, and I liked that my holiday hadn’t been so turned into spending money and stress. But, as I get older I feel much less rigid about that, and I also think that you offering to include her holiday was nice. Although, Chanukah ended two weeks ago.

Well I decorated the house the day after Thanksgiving, but only signed up to Fluther yesterday.

I don’t hate anyone. It’s too much wasted energy. I just find my roommate immature and naive for her age.

In that case Welcome to Fluther!

To me it is no big deal but no one should take that personally, off the top of my head I can’t think of a single holiday that is a big deal to me; not that I don’t enjoy them.