Hanukkah Traditions

During the holiday season, most what we hear is “Merry Christmas.” The society today is based on the Christmas holiday, but most people tend to forget about other holidays that fall in the same timeline. One of the holidays we know of but don’t understand is Hanukkah. Currently, learning other people’s religion is becoming more and more important. With a world changing day by day, people might start to wonder what the origin of the Hanukkah celebration is. The background of every religious festival has their unique story. The Jewish holiday is no different from the gift giving, the lighting of the candles, how it began and the way it is celebrated currently, are all things to look at when understanding the reason for their season. In Judaism, …show more content…
The holiday was originally the Jews being able to fix the Temple, that the Syrians had defiled. The winning of the war was the actual reason for the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah. Over a hundred years later, though, the story of the oil that only was supposed to last for one day ended up lasting for eight, right when they got more oil. Some of the Jews believe that the story is both, a celebration of them winning a war while others see it as the observance of a miracle for oil. The story that is told the majority of the time is that of the miracle oil lasting seven days more than it was supposed to. The war had just ended, and supplies were limited, but the first thing the Jews wanted to do was relight the eternal lite or the ner tamid. When the people realized that the oil was only enough for one day, they sent a messenger out to get some more. His journey took eight days. Therefore the eternal light still burning was a …show more content…
Both Hanukkah and Christmas have false stories that some people think the holiday season is for. For Christmas, it is the story of Santa Claus coming in the night to bring presents to every boy and girl in the world. Obviously, this is just a story to tell children, like the story of the oil lasting eight days and that is the reason to have eight days of song and celebration. Both also have big celebration that includes being with the close family. Even the idea of a big feast of food is shared between the two. Although the songs are of course different, Jews and Christians have their set of songs to listen, sing, and annoy others with. One other thing that the two religions share is the time of worship and teachings. Even though the place of these teachings and worship is different, the both still participate in this act of spiritual