I spoke to my friend Gili today who is in NY City for the week. She was telling me about all the magnificent window displays, especially of Bergdorf Goodman, and the ice ring at Rockefeller center. If you have ever been to New York City around this time, you can envision what Gili is talking about, and your heart should be tingling like mine. It’s as if the city has dressed up really pretty for the holidays in colors of ‘sparkle’ and ‘shiny’, and everyone is happy and smiley. “…It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” (Andy Williams). No wonder Zoe wants to celebrate Christmas (I am certain she is not the only Jewish kid who asked her mommy for a tree). Christmas is very magical, but so is Chanukah. I believe that Santa had a much better marketing strategy and a better PR person than the Maccabeem.
No, we are not having a Chanukah bush in our house… we are celebrating Chanukah with all its might and glory. We do visit friends who celebrate the holiday and enjoy their tree and decorations. We also watch the unavoidable cheesy Christmas movies with a huge bowl of popcorn and have a blast, sometime even shed tears. Luckily we don’t have to deal with cleaning the mess that the dried evergreens leave and the conscious of chopping a tree down.
I still remember how shocked I was to find out that in the US Jewish kids are accustomed to getting 8 gifts for Chanukah, one for each night. Sometimes more than one a night considering the grandparents and the aunts and uncles who send their share of gifts as well. Wow – that’s all I could think, and a feeling of envy infiltrated my heart, while calculating in my head the number of gifts that I have missed in my growing years. You see, growing up in Israel the custom is giving some GELT (which means money in Yiddish), and no gifts.
I never really knew the reason for giving money; I don’t think my grandparents did either. So I thought this is a great time to find out why. You can be certain I found a number of different reasons, but this is the one I really liked.
The story of GELT: (the story of Chanukah)
Long ago in the land of Judea (Israel of today), ruled the Syrian king Antiochus. He was determined to force Hellenism upon the Jewish population, at the expense of their beliefs and rituals. Spiritual freedom was taken from the people of Israel. One could no longer follow his own belief out in the open. Many turned to worship the Greek gods, while some decided to stand up for their beliefs. The rebellions formed an army led by Judah Maccabee. After 3 years of fighting they finally were successful in driving the Syrians out of Israel and reclaiming the Temple in Jerusalem.
The story of GELT, like the story of Chanukah, is about freedom. Money represents freedom, the liberty to make choices, to acquire and to donate. I don’t know if you remember that far, but being a child you are often being told what to do, bound by rules and restrictions; usually hear more NO than YES. By giving GELT to your child, you have the opportunity to teach them about the freedom to make choices with their money, and the importance of channeling some material wealth toward spiritual ends.
As for the gifts, as you suspected it is influenced by the Christmas custom of giving. As for the 8 gifts…I think it came from needing to convince the kids Chanukah is just as great as Christmas, if not better.
My conclusion (after consulting with Oren over a cup of coffee):
One gift + Gelt + lots of Chanukah stories + donuts + spinning dreidels + lighting the menorah + having friends come over = another great Chanukah
I can’t wait... “…it’s the most wonderful time of the year…” (Andy Williams)
(Note: How much gelt? - one dollar a candle not including the Shamash total of 36 gelt. Some people spread it over the eight days; some give it all at once usually on the fifth night).
