A Humanist View of the Holidays

This afternoon the Brooklyn Humanist Community met at the Central Library for a program on a humanist view of the upcoming holidays, specifically Chanukah, Christmas and Kwaanza.

Remi presided, beginning the program with a short explanation of the humanist view she received of the holidays during her upbringing in Ethical Culture. Her Sunday School teacher explained that the darkness of the winter solstice frightened people, and they devised rituals to herald the return of the sun. Eventually they began to believe that without the ritual, the sun would not return. Some of these ancient anxieties may be at play when people cling to traditional religious observances.

We began with Tony's talk on Kwaanza. He explained the origin of the holiday in the mid-1960's, created by a humanist who wanted to give African-Americans an alternative holiday that would celebrate important family and community values. The holiday reaches back to African roots and incorporates some familiar elements such as feasting, lighting candles, and giving homemade gifts.

After Tony's talk and some questions and comments, I gave my talk on Chanukah. I'm copying it below:

My Humanist View of Chanukah

I was raised in a Jewish home that blended some Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions. Chanukah was one of my very favorite holidays. Although I don’t always celebrate it fully as I used to, it holds many layers of meaning for me.

There’s a nine-word summary for most Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat!” Chanukah certainly fits this description. It commemorates the victory of the guerrilla style Maccabees, Jews who fought back against the Assyrian invaders, the rededication of the Temple, and the “miracle of the oil.”

Chanukah is actually a lesser holiday, of little importance, and has only gained in stature because of its frequent proximity to Christmas. As Christmas became more commercialized, Jewish children expressed their envy, and parents were influenced to make Chanukah a much more significant holiday in order to satisfy that envy. I remember as a little girl, envying the people across the street who had a Christmas tree outside their house. Some people tried to imitate Christmas, putting up a “Chanukah bush” with Jewish symbols hanging from the branches, but my family rejected this approach as having no basis in our tradition. My compensation came at Chanukah, when we lit the candles, and I received chocolate coins as “Chanukah gelt” along with a small present each of the 8 days.

According to the story, the Assyrians invaded Judea around 2,300 years ago and imposed their religion on the people there. Forbidden to practice Judaism, the Jews were ordered to worship idols. As a child, I heard the horrific legend of Hannah and her seven sons. In this tale, Hannah’s seven sons were killed before her eyes, one by one, for refusing to worship any but the one God of Israel. Even her three-year old son stood by his religion and died for it. Today, I find the story far fetched, but we were meant to be inspired by the idea that people would stand by their beliefs and even give their lives for them.

But the story of Chanukah is one of triumph, religious freedom and national identity. Surely, whether or not we believe in a God, we can take that lesson and stand up for the First Amendment’s codification of freedom of religion. We can join with other Humanists taking a strong stand against the establishment of religion.

As for the lights, clearly the increasing light as a new candle is added to the Chanukiah each night has its roots in the return of the light following the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. But it also stands for the “miracle of the oil.” This tale comes from the rededication of the Temple. When it came time to relight the sacred Eternal Light that is never to go out, there was only one small jug of oil found. Yet, according to the story, that little bit of oil burned for 8 days, giving the liberators time to obtain more oil and keep the lamp burning.

Do I believe this actually happened? Does it even matter? What this legend says to me is that when we are dedicated enough, seemingly inadequate resources can be sufficient. It can also tell us that with creativity and open minds, we can find enough energy, food, and other necessities without destroying the earth. And, as we move forward from day to day, if we increase our dedication to our mission (BHC’s as well as our own personal life’s missions), the light we bring into the world will grow and increase.

It is this view of the “light” that inspires Peter, Paul and Mary’s Chanukah song for peace and justice, “Don’t Let the Light Go Out.”

There are three more aspects of the Chanukah celebration I’d like to mention. First, the dreidels. A dreidel is nothing more than a top, but it is inscribed with four Hebrew letters that create an acronym for “A Great Miracle Happened There.” In Israel, dreidels are slightly different, and the acronym stands for, “A Great Miracle Happened Here.”

As I learned it, dreidels are associated with Chanukah because they were a cover up for secret Torah classes. Boys would gather in caves to study the Torah, but they would keep little tops with them. At the approach of Assyrian soldiers, they would conceal the holy books and pretend to be playing a gambling game when the soldiers arrived. This deception enabled them to pass along the knowledge and keep their religion alive. I would call this a “noble lie” as Tony defined it in his talk on the ethics of lying this past September.

The humanist value I see in the dreidel game is the importance of education for all. The image of children meeting secretly in order to learn is something that has been repeated in history, perhaps most recently in Afghanistan where girls were forbidden to attend school and had to meet secretly to learn to read and write.

Then there are the latkes. Once again, they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat! But the latkes and jelly doughnuts (sofkanyot) consumed on Chanukah have a symbolic significance because they are cooked in oil, to commemorate the “miracle of the oil.”

Last but not least, a little-known aspect of Chanukah that once was well known but fell into obscurity is the story of Judith Maccabee. Judith was a beautiful young widow who entered the Assyrian camp where the cruel General Holofernes had his tent. Taken by her beauty, he invited her to a banquet, where legend has it that she fed him on salty cheese to make him thirsty and plied him with so much wine that he fell into a drunken stupor. After he passed out, Judith took his sword and decapitated him. With the Assyrian army thrown into confusion, Judith inspired the Israelites to launch a victorious surprise attack. Her dedication and courage changed the course of her generation’s history.

Today, with a rediscovery of feminism in the past 30 years or so, Judith’s story has again come to light, and in many households cheese latkes are prepared along with the traditional potato recipe, to recognize Judith’s contribution to the Maccabee victory. So the complete story of Chanukah points us to a recognition that women, as well as men, play an important part in the struggle for freedom.

From a Humanist viewpoint, Chanukah reminds us that dedication and standing up for our beliefs takes a “whole village.” Men, women, and even the children who sneaked into the caves to study the forbidden books, all played a part in striking a blow for religious freedom and self-determination. We are reminded that with dedication, courage, and imagination, scarcity can be overcome, and we can continue to grow and spread “light.”

Tony gave us a detailed history of Christmas and the meaning behind Christmas trees. He traced the history and origin of Santa Claus as we know him today, and talked about his own experiences of Christmas as a child. Afterwards we all talked about our experiences of the holidays. Some of us envied Christmas, others didn't really have a holiday tradition at all. We spoke a lot about the issue of gifts and it was clear that there is a lot of emotional content behind giving and receiving gifts that are perceived as "just right" versus gifts that are not what the children wanted or else gifts that parents bent over backward to come up with.

We have some great programs coming up the rest of this month and in January, and I look forward to seeing everyone. Today's program was a warm and comradely one with familiar faces. I thoroughly enjoyed it.