Of course. My condo board sent out a notice today for a “holiday fund,” while wishing everyone a “joyous holiday season.”
Heaven forbid they should say “Christmas.” That’s now forbidden and taboo. Christmas, after all, is just another “holiday” — like Labor Day or Presidents’ Day. It has no special cultural or historical significance, really. It’s no better or worse than any other “holiday” which dares not speak its name.
With that in mind I’m going to offer everyone — and I do mean everyone, not just my Jewish friends — a Happy Hanukkah (it starts this evening and runs through Dec. 9). Because the Festival of Lights is not just another “holiday.” It marks, explains Answers.Com,
the miraculous military victory of the small, ill-equipped Jewish army over the ruling Greek Syrians, who had banned the Jewish religion and desecrated the Temple; and the miracle of the small cruse of consecrated oil, which burned for eight days in the Temple’s menorah instead of just one.
To be sure, Hanukkah is not a Jewish holy day. It is not the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. However, it is a celebration of faith, resolve and commitment: to each other and to our God. And that is something that all of us, of every faith, would do well to remember, especially in this the Christmas season.
