by Veronica Spettmann
‘Tis the season for all kinds of holidays for all kinds of Aunties! To
prepare all of our Aunties for the festivities of winter, we thought it
might be nice to put together another holiday fact sheet for our
Auntourage. Here we have some of the origins for traditions in four of
the season’s holidays: Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas, Kwanzaa.
Hanukkah
December *20-28, 2011
- “Hanukkah” means “dedication” in Hebrew.
- According
to the Talmud, a central text in Judaism, Hanukkah is an eight-day
celebration because of a miracle. When the Jews were rededicating the
Second Temple (hence the “dedication” translation for Hanukkah), they
only had enough oil to light the menorah for one day, but it remained
lit for eight.
- Jews light an additional candle each night, from one to eight candles on the last night of the holiday.
- Because of the importance of oil in this story, a lot of traditional
Jewish celebratory foods are fried in oil, like potato pancakes and
jelly doughnuts.
- The four Hebrew letters on the four sides of the dreidel mean a "great miracle happened there.” - Children today play with dreidels during Hanukkah to commemorate
children who would use them to mask the fact that they had actually been
studying from the Torah, despite the fact that that was outlawed by
their Greek oppressors.
*Holiday begins at sundown on December 20th.
YuleDecember 22, 2011
- “Yule” is from the Old Norse and means
“Feast” or “Wheel” and is a celebration of the Winter Solstice, or the
shortest day and the longest night of the year.
- Yule celebrates the death and re-birth of the Sun-God, who will fertilize the Mother Goddess for a fruitful spring.
- Yule, like most of the other seasonal holidays, is a celebration of
light because it is the shortest day of the year. This is why it is
often commemorated with the Yule Log.
- Because Yule is associated
with the wheel, no wheel is to be turned on Yule or else it would show
impatience with the “wheel of the sky,” or the sun.
- Yule is a 12-day holiday beginning on “Mother’s Night” and ending on
“Yule Night. It is also the origin for the Christian song, “12 Days of
Christmas.”
ChristmasDecember 25, 2011
- “Christmas” is from the Old English “Cristes Maesse,” or “mass of Christ.”
- Because the early American Puritans were very strict in their beliefs
about indulging in decadence, Christmas was not a holiday in early
America and was not declared a federal holiday until 1870.
- Santa Claus became an integral Christmas figure after novelist Washington Irving wrote him into a novel in 1809.
- Mistletoe was an ancient Celtic remedy for infertility and was
associated with the Scandinavian goddess of love, which is likely why
people kiss beneath mistletoe around Christmas.
- It is said that the tradition of the Christmas tree was based on the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
KwanzaaDecember 26, 2011-January 1, 2012
- Kwanzaa is derived from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits.”
- Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966 and celebrates the first harvests in Africa.
- Kwanzaa is centered around Seven Principles: Unity, Self-Determination,
Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose,
Creativity, and Faith.
- Those who practice Kwanzaa are encouraged to
not mix the holiday or its symbols with those of any other culture,
because it would go against the traditional Kwanzaa belief of staying
true to one’s roots.
- Kwanzaa, unlike Hanukkah, Yule, and Christmas, is a cultural holiday rather than a religious one.
So,
Aunties, you can share these fun facts with your nieces and nephews or
in trivia games with your families at your various holiday celebrations.
Whatever holiday you celebrate with your nieces and nephews, may your
season be safe, happy, and full of promise for the coming year!
Published: November 30, 2011