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Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel
By adamg on Mon, 11/29/2010 - 4:30pm
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Hmm!
I'm all for equal-opportunity representation for all religions. That said, does that mean we can stop referring to Christmas music as "holiday music" and just call it what it is? I'm really tired of the PC crap. Let everyone enjoy his or her holiday for what it is!
Doesn't bug me.
Some people use Christmas Music- most people I would say- and some people say "Holiday music". I actually say "Holiday Music" when around people whom I"m not sure would take offense or whom I suspect are probably not Christian. Just seems to be courtesy to me these days and not "PC".
I'm not Jewish, for example, but I can see how, nowadays, with all the Christmas stuff going on for a full month if not longer before the 25th- how that might get on my nerves a bit and how I might be offended by someone saying to me casually in the elevator- "Isn't this Christmas Music lovely?" Well- no-- for a Jewish person it might not be- and it is presumptuous to say so like you are talking about a 75 degree perfect spring day.
Would it be real annoying to someone who lives in say- Huntington Tennessee- where just about the entire town is Christian to feel he has say "Happy Holidays"? Yeah. I can understand that. But this is Boston and the reality is that we have sizable numbers of people who are not Christian and I don't see it as some oppressive totalitarian burden to take that consideration into account in my daily personal interactions.
A Jew weighs in
I get pretty pissed when people say "holiday" and they mean "Christmas." Say "Christmas," if that's the holiday to which you're referring. I'm not in any way offended that a religion to which I don't belong has a holiday. But I am offended when people try to insinuate that they're including me and my holidays, particularly when the people who have "holiday" whatevers most likely did not take a single second to wish me a nice holiday when my important ones occurred in the fall and the spring.
We have a "holiday tree" and "holiday party" at my workplace for the families we work for, listed as such on fliers and whatnot, and every year, I suggest that they refer to it as "Christmas," since that's the only "holiday" I know of that's celebrated by putting up a tree decorated in this manner, having Santa photos, singing carols, etc. Boss tells me we can't call it that. I don't know where boss gets this idea, but we of course are absolutely free to celebrate any holidays, as long as we aren't teaching people that they have to believe in them. Hell, we probably would actually be within legal bounds to teach people to believe in Christmas, since said party is done entirely by volunteers/donations (no program funding) and isn't part of the regular programming.
Holiday tree, where holiday == "New Year's Day"
In Russia, trees and decorations thereof are associated with New Year's Day rather than Christmas: New Year tree
(the linked Wikipedia article also refers to a similar tradition in Turkey, but I know much less about this)
Yes, but
The one at my workplace is pretty clearly a Christmas tree. There are no Russian people or traditions involved, and it's down long before the Gregorian New Year.
Agreed
I also tire of people acting like Chanukah isn't a complete bullshit holiday that we should mostly be ignoring anyway. I mostly advocate that we ignore it and hope it goes away speedily and in our days.
What do you mean by that, Ray?
Chanukah is not a major Jewish holiday (those are Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot, Pesach, and Shavout), but it is quite real and has been celebrated for thousands of years.
He knows what he means.
. . . and its disturbing. One to avoid.
D'oraita vs. d'rabbanan
Actually, most scholars say that "major" and "minor" aren't terms that apply to holidays. All of the holidays are mandated, but there are d'oraita holidays (biblically mandated) and d'rabbanan holidays (rabinically mandated).
But I think what people are getting at is that the observation of Chanukkah is to say blessings and light candles each night. And make some latkes and play some dreidel if you want. You still go to work, it's not a big deal, it's not a big season that one works up to with weeks of preparations. Pesach and Rosh Hashanah are, but somehow they don't get included when people are using the term "holidays" thinking they're being inclusive.
Sort of
It's true we're instructed "lo plug" (do not differentiate), but if we assign actual halachic weight to these d'rabbanan yomim tovim we run afoul of the injunction neither to add to nor subtract from the mitzvot (since adding a sin offering for failing to light the channukiah (for example) would add a negative mitzvah on something that doesn't itself warrant a siag l'torah). So on the one hand we say everyone is obliged to say al hanissim and bentch licht, but on the other hand we have no mechanism to enforce the obligation, unlike the d'oraisa chagim. It's all well and good to say we don't differentiate, but we do as a practical matter.
Non-Christmas holiday music
There is some: Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride, Walking in a Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow, Frosty the Snowman, etc.
Yes
Wouldn't that be "winter music," though, since it doesn't refer to any holiday and can be sung by people who don't observe any holidays during the winter season or at all or whose holy day calendar doesn't revolve around solar seasons?
Solstice music
You could call it that -- holiday music for pagans.
After 45 minutes, my ears are numb
And I've come to the conclusion that Jewish songwriters saved their best stuff for Christmas songs.
In fact, some of the songs sound exactly like the sort of stuff you'd expect to hear on WROR at, oh, 11 p.m. on Dec. 24, with angelic choruses intoning as the lead singer exults how Christ is risen, um, Antiochus is defeated. But hearing "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of schmaltz, and when it was good and ready, it did a little waltz" was kind of cute. And every so often they play a klezmer song.
Couple of alternatives
And, of course:
Or how about this?
Also
Candlelight, by the Maccabeats
Matisyahu's version
Featuring what might be the only known images of a hockey-playing Chasid in a Santa suit:
I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica
Off Topic Suggestion
What do we have to do to get Bank of America to turn the Pregnant Building (100 Federal) into a giant dreidel? I think it would look great if they could turn lights on and off to form the four characters on the four "pregnant" faces of the building!
Totally with you
This is a brilliant idea