Hanukkah.
December 6, 2007 – 4:05 pmLast year, my daughter learned about Hanukkah in school last year and wanted to celebrate it. So, someone from our congregation equipped us with all the workings of the Hanukkah Festival. We started yesterday and were relying on my daughter to teach us which candle to light and how to “do it.” It is amazing how ignorant I was about the nuts and bolts of the Festival of Lights. Also, I was amazed how much my daughter knew about Hanukkah from the public school system - curious…
Anyway, I know the story behind the tradition and read to her from 1 Maccabees this morning as an addendum to our devotional time, but the actual lighting the candles?!?!?! Which one on which side?
So, you might be wondering, “Pastor, why Hanukkah?” Well, since the schools are teaching about the holiday, I figured it would be good opportunity to glorify God and contextualize it for my daughter, as an amazing God-event that with others like the exodus, lead up to the Christ-moment.
We aren’t doing the gift exchanging during the eight days because my kids are already getting Christmas day and the 12 days of Christmas. At some level my children are trying to understand the difference between celebrating Christian holidays and not Jewish ones if they all celebrate God.
Everyday is a celebration of God! Let’s all cancel school and work to party like Thy Kingdom come!
Just to put your mind at ease, I do know which Advent candles to light and in which order.
