happy hanukkahHappy Hanukkah 2009 everyone! In celebration of the holiday's kick off this evening, I've done a roundup of the very best Hanukkah songs for 2009. I hope you enjoy them and please do let me know if I've missed any. In my humble opinion, the gold standard still remains Adam Sandler's classic The Chanukah Song
Hanukkah, by contrast, is not about death and dying. Start with that. You can go to the mall. You get presents. It's not about sin. You can eat and drink. Better yet, the official food of Hanukkah is oil, which means eating fried foods is a form of celebration. Jelly doughnuts and fried potato pancakes are the two official foods of Hanukkah. How could you not like this holiday? But it's not Christmas. Hanukkah is what rabbis call a minor Jewish holiday, even if it's celebrated as the Second Coming by a lot of folks I know. That's my problem. Why do we feel we need to turn a little holiday into an alternative Christmas?
Believe me, I'm as much to blame for this as the next person. For years, I've patted myself on the back for not having a tree or a wreath or stockings or anything else that would suggest we are celebrating the birth of another religion's savior. Christmas, I have taught my children and my parents taught me, is not "our" holiday. It is a religious holiday. We are not Christian, so we do not celebrate Christmas. How easy it sounds.
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