From all of us at Bwog, a very happy and healthy first night of Hanukkah to all. May you spin many a gimmel in your dreideling!
By
Bwog Staff on
Dec 11, 2009 
19 Comments
From all of us at Bwog, a very happy and healthy first night of Hanukkah to all. May you spin many a gimmel in your dreideling!
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19 Comments
@Big Man on Campus Happy Chrismukkah to all of you half and halfs as well!! Yay holidays!
@keep Christ in Christmas! Keep the Han in Hannukah! http://i.imgur.com/HoFee.jpg
Keep the Kwan in Kwanzaa! http://i.imgur.com/8rDQH.jpg
@weiny Why wasn’t there an Eid Mubarak post?
@random question bwog do you know what all that screaming this morning around 110 and broadway was about? they could have been saying viva mexico, but then again i was half asleep…
@HarmDwell There were a bunch of people running and one of them had a torch.
@Wait Are all of you intentionally misunderstanding the first post so you can start a comment war, or does sarcasm really not translate over the internetz? By the way, that’s the way I think “internetz” is spelled, really.
@oi partisan y’all are forgetting the part about moses
@Noobs People need a serious lesson on your jewish customs, missing the core story here. Its a holiday celebrated on the 25th of Kislev on the Jewish (lunar) calendar and celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Hanukkah means “dedication” (sometimes). Holiday is celebrated by lighting candles for eight nights and exchanging presents (in israel the presents are beat). Eight nights signify the time that the eternal flame of the alter in the Temple lasted, though there was only enough oil for one night. Eternal flames are important to alters and G-d imagery, so the fact that the light didn’t go out on an alter of a super holy temple was pretty neat. Overall a minor holiday for black hats, but fun for boys and girls!Ppraise Allah and the Holy Prophet
@What you mean is Chanukah is similar to Christmas in the sense that we give and receive presents. That was 100% taken from Christmas and has nothing to do with religion and was a means to assimilate. Religion is stupid anyways…and for the first person to ask what is Chanukah: That is pretty pathetic especially if you go to an ivy and an ivy which has the Jewish Theological Seminary…..if you dont know something google it motherfer
@Alexander Yannai Actually, the Hasmonean dynasty instituted the holiday after they took power from the Seleucid Empire, one of the successor states to Alexander the Great. The war which was won, while beginning with Judaism, actually had much more to do with the local power of a particular regional warlord and even the rise of the Roman Empire. So really what we celebrate is the national holiday of a minor Jewish dynasty from the 2nd and 1st century BC.
@No, what we really celebrate is an analogue of Christmas, brought about as a result of the simultaneous Jewish desires for autonomy and assimilation as the 20th century progressed. Jews wanted to celebrate Christmas because it made the American, but couldn’t because they were Jewish. Its a fascinating study in cultural cross-pollination. So Happy Hannukah, everybody! Let’s all eat latkes and embrace all the purely secular parts of Christmas!
@Chanukah No, actually Chanukah dates back 1000s of years. It was instituted as a holiday by the Hasmonean dynasty as correctly stated before. You are correct that there was an attempt in the mid-late 19th century (during the Jewish enlightenment and reformation period) to remake Chanukah in Christmas’s image. But speeches were also added to synagogue sabbath services based on Christian preacher sermons. This type of cultural exchange was common and had little do with Chanukah per se, except that the holiday lends itself well to redefinitions.
Chanukah was remade again during the second wave zionist movement to represent the struggles of Jews in mandate Palestine and in the creation of The State of Israel.
As I tried to show in my original post–Chanukah is not defined by one thing– it is something different to everyone, depending on what is most important to one about one’s Jewish identity.
Yeesh–What’s with everyone?–relax and eat a donut
@Chanukah No, I too know the actual detailed history, however, someone asked what Chanukah was–not for the exhaustive history of the Jews under the Greek and Roman Empires. Chanukah is a holiday, holidays can be completely unrelated to history. This one happens to have a historical basis. Probably 1% of the Jewish population actually knows this history and those that do still do not celebrate the holiday for its political origins. My answer was an attempt to respond to an actual question.
Holiday does not equal political history. It is a collection of customs and shared experiences.
@Chanukah is a Jewish holiday which lasts 8 days. Every night of the 8 nights at sundown, the menorah (which is a sort of candelabra)is lit, adding one candle with each consecutive night. Some Jewish people, usually of a more religious persuasion see Chanukah as a holiday of miracles, where the Jews defeated their enemies against great odds and where Jews were able to continue practicing Judaism without persecution. Others who celebrate Chanukah as a cultural festival see the story as a symbol of survival and strength. Others simply like the donuts that usually come with Chanukah parties (as do all foods oil-drenched). Others like the presents exchanged (which I think is a custom actually borrowed from Christmas).
Anyway, this is the basic outline of holiday.
There is the whole war side to it, but holidays tend not to dwell on that–total buzz kill with the maneschewitz.
@Well, You light a “menorah.” Not sure if you can pass it around to smoke, but if it lasts for 8 days, that shit must be miraculous.
@Adverbly !
@Seriously ?
@Clearly Columbia’s Under One Roof program has not been that effective.
@ignorant wat’s chanukah?