Let there be light Hanukkah’s first night and Christmas Eve converge this year
Tom Zeni and his bubble lights.
Observer-Reporter
Rabbi David Novitsky of Beth Israel Synagogue in Washington lights the candles on the menorah in this file photo from 2016.
Shades of December’s pallet can be bleak: Mud. Skeletal trees with gray bark. Long, dark nights. Is it any wonder that when you can’t count on sun setting snowdrifts a-glitter, or seeing a sprinkling of stars at night that people found a way to lift the gloom?
With the winter solstice comes the promise that daylight hours will gradually lengthen and that spring will eventually warm the earth.
But until that time, those who celebrate Christmas and members of the Jewish faith have something in common. Holidays that coincide only rarely are sharing dates this year, and they both have traditions centered on lights. Christmas has a date fixed at Dec. 25, and for many, Christmas Eve is just as important. Hanukkah’s dates migrate between November and December, and its convergence with Christmas – Hannukkah’s first night and Christmas Eve are on the same date this year – has happened only five times in the past 98 years.
Because the Jewish religion pre-dates Christianity, let’s first examine Hanukkah, the festival of lights which commemorates a single day’s supply of oil that burned for eight days as observant Jews, led by Judah Maccabee, liberated the temple in Jerusalem from Greek Assyrian invaders.
Rabbi David Novitsky of Beth Israel Congregation in Washington sees spirituality taking center stage this time of year.
“After the destruction of the temple, that spiritual light provided real sustenance to the people,” he says. “We don’t celebrate the military victory of the Maccabees against the Greek Assyrians. Military victories come and go.”
Neither does the purpose of the holiday revolve around decoration or making a fancy display. Novitsky asks his congregation to focus on “the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days, and to honor that particular deed, the lighting of the menorah,” a candelabrum with nine branches especially for Hanukkah. He is strict about using oil or wax candles when lighting a menorah, nixing electric lights.
“Other lights and celebrations are commercializing the holiday,” Novitsky says. “It’s about family. It’s not coming together to give gifts, it’s coming together to commune with God. Every day we thank God.”
The rabbi also explained that Hanukkah is a moveable feast because Judaism follows a lunar calendar. Every so often there is a leap year which has a calendar “catch up” with the season of the year. This year, the leap month, called Adar 2, occurred during the secular calendar’s month of March.
It’s easy to get hung up, Novitsky says, “on stuff that came out 100 or 200 years ago. We have a Madison Avenue view of holidays,” which promotes the latest must-have merchandise.
“Most of our families, our younger families, are interfaith families,” Novitsky says. “I would emphasize the spiritual aspects of the two religions, and the spiritual gifts we receive from God, and de-emphasize the materialism of the culture. I’m not an expert on Christianity, but many Christians that I come in contact with tell me at the birth of Jesus, there was probably a lot of light.”
The most familiar account of the nativity of Christ in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke tells of shepherds around Bethlehem, who were watching over their flocks at night, being astounded by the appearance of an angel of the Lord.
“And the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified,” according to the gospel writer by way of the New International Version of the Bible. “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Both oil and candles have lit Christian churches for centuries, and it was only a matter of time before candles and Christmas trees came together in Old Europe. Protestant legend points to reformer Martin Luther in the 1500s, but a 2008 “Christian History” article credits Price Albert, the husband of the British Queen Victoria, with bringing a Germanic tradition to Windsor Castle in 1841.
Thomas Edison’s invention of strands of electric lights substantially, but not totally, reduced fire hazard.
Wonder if Edison realized how those strands would become so closely intertwined with holiday celebrations?
Tom Zeni of South Strabane Township has amassed a collection of 26,000 Christmas lights, most of them clear, replacing about a third of them each year, for a 31-year Christmas display that wrapped up in 2009.
He considers himself a traditionalist, so he hasn’t felt compelled to light his home’s exterior with the latest in gadgetry, a laser or LED projector.
“Because of the landscape and the different shapes of the home, such as dormers, you’re not getting a flat-screen projection,” Zeni says. “That type of motion makes me – I don’t know if I should call it dizzy – but it’s distracting.”
He and his wife, Jackie, decorate three indoor trees, and figures of carolers ring their sun room. One tree percolates with motion due to its bubble lights. Zeni finds the bubbling to be soothing yet eye-catching. The rippling lights, which went out of fashion about 50 years ago when miniature lights arrived on the Christmas scene, have made a resurgence.
“It takes three days for me to do a tree the way I want it,” he says. “People may not know my name, but when I’m pumping gas at the gas station, or in grocery stores, people still say, ‘You’re the guy with the lights.’
“You do it for your family, then you do it for your neighborhood, and if there’s anybody who appreciates it, that’s why you do this.
It makes everything worthwhile.
“I have no affection for inflatables at all. Why a Minion is now representing Christmas, I have no idea. They have no meaning for me, but I’m older,” says the 69-year-old Zeni. “‘Star Wars,’ what does ‘Star Wars’ have to do with Christmas? I don’t know. I don’t know what people are thinking. Maybe you want to put that out for Halloween.”