# Happy Holidays



## Rich Parsons (Dec 14, 2004)

*Hanukkah*

      Hanukkah, which means "dedication" and is also referred to as "The Festival of Lights", is a Jewish festival, which begins on the Hebrew date of the 25th Kislev and lasts eight days, through the 2nd of Tevet.  That corresponds to December 8 through 16 this year.  Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees (led by Judah) over the Hellenistic Syrians.  Once the Jews had reclaimed the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Temple had to be rededicated.  According to legend, only one jar of sacramental oil was found, enough for one day.  Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, thus the eight days of Hanukkah.

      The most important Hanukkah ritual is the candle lighting.  Jews light candles in a special candleholder called a "Menorah".  Each night, one more candle is added.  The middle candle, called the "shamash", is used to light each of the other candles and it is lit every night.  On the last night there are nine lit candles.

      It is traditional to eat foods fried in oil during Hanukkah.  Some common foods are potato latkes and "sufganiot" (jelly doughnuts).  Another tradition is to play the "dreidel" game.  A dreidel is a four-sided top. On each side is a different Hebrew letter corresponding to the words in the sentence "A great miracle happened here."  The dreidel is used for a gambling game in which each letter represents a different amount of money (or whatever) won or lost.  Another common Hanukkah practice is giving gifts or money to children.


*Christmas*


      Since about 400 A.D. Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus. "Christ" means Messiah or Anointed One - the title given to Jesus - and
"Mass" was a religious festival.  Following the birth of Jesus, three wise men followed a bright star in the sky to Jesus' birthplace in Bethlehem. They brought three gifts to Jesus.  Gold, a gift fit for a King, Frankincense, burnt in worship of God, and Myrrh, a sign of mortal human-ness, which was used to bury the dead.

      Many traditions have become a part of modern-day Christmas.  The custom of sending Christmas cards started in Britain in 1840 when the first "Penny Post" public postal deliveries began.  Santa Claus or Father Christmas is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, which comes from the Dutch "Sinterklaas."  Nicholas was a Christian leader from Myra (in modern-day Turkey) in the 4th century AD.  He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it.  It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney.  It landed in a stocking, which a child had put to dry by the fire.

*Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr*

      For over 1.2 billion Muslims throughout the world, ranging from the
 land of the rising sun to the land of the free and the home of the brave,  Ramadan is a special month of the year.  During the month of Ramadan,  Muslims fast (no eating, drinking, smoking, or sexual intercourse) from dawn to sunset every day, to ask for the benevolence of Allah.  Ramadan was the month in which the first verses of the holy Qur'an were revealed to Prophet Mohammad.  It is a time for inner reflection, devotion to God and self-control.  The sighting of the new moon at the end of Ramadan heralds the celebration of Eid ul-Fitr.

      Muslims celebrate Eid by expressing thanks to Allah, for opportunity given to them to experience this month of fasting, and the opportunity to cleanse
 themselves.  On the day of Eid, Muslims celebrate by distributing alms among the poor and needy.  Social gathering of neighbors, relatives, and friends are common sights; gifts are also given to children and loved ones after special prayers.



*Kwanzaa*

      Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday, which celebrates family, community and culture. Celebrated from 26 December thru
1 January, its origins are in the first harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name. The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase "matunda ya kwanza" which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African language which is the most widely spoken African language.

      The first-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history as far back as ancient Egypt and Nubia and appear in ancient and modern times in other classical African civilizations such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland. These celebrations are also found in ancient and modern times among societies as large as empires (the Zulu or kingdoms (Swaziland) or smaller societies and groups like the Matabele, Thonga and Lovedu, all of southeastern Africa.

      Kwanzaa builds on the five fundamental activities of Continental African "first fruit" celebrations: ingathering, reverence, commemoration, recommitment, and celebration.  Kwanzaa, then, is: a time of ingathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them; a time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation; a time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence, our ancestors;a time of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our      ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice; and a time for celebration of the Good, the good of life and of existence itself, the good of family, community and culture, the good of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word the good of the divine, natural and social.


* This has been a Diversity Moment brought you by Martial Talk  *


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## jfarnsworth (Dec 14, 2004)

You are trying to explode my brain, right! :uhyeah:


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## Zepp (Dec 14, 2004)

Hurray diversity!

Nice and thorough job Rich.


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