Holidays

Ok I seem to have decided to be a Grinch early this year- I blame this on several factors, the first being the Bill O’Reilly and his Faux News Channel. I’m just sick of him saying that the Christian Majority must TAKE BACK X-mas. I don’t want to take away his precious X-mas, I just want him to be as sensitive to *my* feelings as he wants me to be to *his*

The second on my father’s second wife, I have a long memory for slights perceived against me- and worse then being lied to about Santa Claus (because my great uncle also married a shiksa) I disliked being lied to about Easter. My older brother and I were convinced to make Easter baskets and dye eggs and leave matzo for the Easter Bunny (Ernest E. Bunny). My brother and I were brought up in my father’s house to respect his wife’s christen traditions- while she did nothing to respect ours. I still remember getting into a disagreement with her because I pointed out that ANY religious symbol would work on Dracula( this was shortly after Kitty used a star of David on Dracula in a X-Man Annual, emboldening me to stand up to her). She made it clear that it was just a CROSS that would work… My dad as usual said nothing.

The third is the death and re-imagining of Hanukah for me in college and beyond. See once I got to college, I sometimes would no longer be able to celebrate Hanukah with my grandfather and family. Hanukah moves on the Gregorian calendar, so sometimes it fell before Winter Break. This year I’ll be celebrating Hanukah into Jan. 2006. As we got together less for the holiday, my mom got lazy. While I might still get Hanukah presents from my mom… I don’t remember the last time I had homemade potato pancakes (number 6 on Evan’s List). I light the candles on my own, I say the prayers and I think this year I will once again try to put a Harley toy by the Menorah as I light each candle.
However the meaning of the lighting has changed. No longer is it “my mom’s side” version of X-mas with presents and potato pancakes… If I was an ancient Greek, I would be dedicating the candles to Prometheus. For that is what I am really celebrating during the winter months- the gift of fire. Being able to light a candle rather then curse the dark. As I thought about this in my mind for this post- I realized that my celebration of Hanukah goes not only against the ‘real’ meaning of Hanukah (one of Israel’s few military victories), but against the Torah. See not only am I a product of original sin as Eve was “cursed” with childbirth after disobeying G-d, but so is fire…. For what is fire but fruit from the tree of knowledge?

And finally getting back to Bill- I get annoyed that in college and grad school I had to explain to Christians what MY holidays meant- as they were clueless… and sometimes I felt they didn’t give a darn anyway. I have talked in recent years to people who celebrate other traditions, and tried to let them know that I was genuinely curious, as I like to know things. As a fanboy I very much believe in IDIC… And that’s why when I had first found out that Evan and wife were pagans… or at least that’s what I thought they said… I would gift them for all hollow’s eve. A tradition that I still keep( though I did miss gifting them last year due to lack of funds). Heck I didn’t know for a year or two that Evan celebrated X-mas… and since he hasn’t corrected me, I still gift him, and his family, for All Hollow’s Eve… and in college I celebrated the Saturnalia with a friend- who while not Greek was touched in pagan ways (and his birthday was during Saturnalia)

With that out of the way answers from evan’s holiday mem.


1.What is your favorite holiday movie?
The Hebrew Hammer… because nothing is better then a circumcised private dick saving Hanukah from Santa Claus.

2. What is your favorite holiday song (title and artist)?
Ok…. Transferring this to ‘literal’ my favorite song that I sing on a holiday is “Moses”. I think that it was a slave song and not Hebrew per say as it’s sung in a much lower key then the usual fare- but I love singing it on Passover.
“Go down Moses, way down Egypt Way… Tell Old Pharaoh, Let my people go”
If I have to go with a ‘December’ holiday song… it’s the Dreidel Song.

3. What's the best holiday gift you were ever given, and why?
The best? This is very tricky. I first wanted to say my dad’s holiday checks, but in the spirit of things, the present that got me the most feclempt- the one that moved me the most was my father getting me a leather bound Frank Miller collection of his dark knight work- Year 1, Dark Knight Returns and a x-mas story. I felt moved because I felt in that present that my father had thought OF ME. It wasn’t something I had asked for but something he knew I had wanted. He doesn't often have moments of clarity about me... so this was one of the best gifts I've gotten over the years.

4. Do you have a special someone to kiss at the stroke of midnight on New Year's?
Nope. Though in the interest of being a twit- I will say if I’m with my mom for the Jewish New Year- I make sure I kiss all my family on the cheek.

5. Name of your favorite reindeer?
Olive, the other reindeer…

6. Favorite Holiday food?
Potato Pancakes… Bar none.

7. Snow day -- cuddle by the fire, or hand me a snowball?
Snow Balls! Maybe even a Slushball at my bro if he’s not looking.

8. What was your New Year's resoloution for this year? Did you stick to it?
Don’t make them so I don’t worry about keeping to them.

9. Is there really a Santa Claus?
As I don’t believe is Jesus… find it hard to believe in Santa. Though I still love the Bart X-mas special where he points out in a Super World that Santa is pretty believable.

10. Present, or stocking stuffer?
Present.
In the Harris household the stocking had a toothbrush and an apple.
Plus every Jewish kid can tell you- they’d rather have 1 GOOD present then a bunch of small presents( which is what I consider stocking stuffers to be)