Holiday Celebrations
by Morte Portney and Neal Levin

Anyone interested in learning more about the numerous holidays celebrated this season will find brief descriptions and informative links here. Anyone with more information (or more informed information) please feel free to contact us about adding it. We hope you find this as interesting as we found the research.

St. Lucia Day

St Lucia's Day is celebrated on December 13^th to honor Saint Lucia a 4^th century Italian saint who, as the story goes, carried food to the Christians hiding in the tunnels below Sicily. She wore candles on her head to light her way. She was of a wealthy family but cast aside that life giving her monies to the poor. It is told that she was killed by the roman government when her religious sympathies were uncovered. She is a patron Saint of virgins and of the blind and she is also known as the Queen of Light. A young girl dressed in a white gown with a red sash wearing an evergreen wreath with 5 or more lighted candles on her head represents Lucia as she brings coffee and rolls to each family member in their room before the light of dawn.

Saint Lucia's feast day is honored in Sweden and Denmark where it is the beginning of the holiday season as well as Italy and areas of the United States with large populations of people of Scandinavian ancestry.

To learn more about this holiday please explore the following links:

http://www.algonet.se/~bernadot/christmas/13.html

http://www.worldbook.com/fun/holidays/html/lucia.htm

http://www.umkc.edu/imc/stlucia.htm

http://www.eurochristmas.com/geninfo/luciaday.htm

http://www.best.com/~swanson/holidays/nora.html

Epiphany

Celebrated on January 6^th there are different views of what exactly the day marks, here is a short definition of some of the more common beliefs. Epiphany means "revelation" and to most Christian churches Epiphany is the day the Wise Men reached Bethlehem and was therefor the day of the revelation of Jesus' birth. In some Eastern churches Epiphany is actually seen as the day of Jesus' birth. In some traditions it is therefor January 6th not Christmas Eve or Day that gifts are exchanged on. The old carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is about the days between December 25^th and January 6^th, which was historically celebrated as "Christmas". Epiphany (or the closest Sunday) is also the last day of advent. Epiphany is far too complex for a short explanation but the following links provide more information:

http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/ethnic_relig/epiphany.html

http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/3kings.htm

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/x3k.html

http://www.chin.gc.ca/christmas/epifani.htm

http://www.cresourcei.org/cyepiph.html

http://www.byzantines.net/feasts/epiphany.htm

http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/epiphany.htm

Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights

Each year during Hanukkah the Jews remember a time long past. The Jewish people had returned to the Land of Israel from their Exile, and had rebuilt the Holy Temple, but they remained subject to the reigning powers. First, the Persian Empire, and then the conquering armies of Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great was a kind and generous ruler to the Jewish people. He canceled taxes for the Jewish during Sabbatical years, and even offered animals to be sacrificed on his behalf in the Temple. After the death of Alexander, his kingdom was divided among his generals. Judea, the land of the Jews, was caught in the middle and ended up under the Syrian Kings.

The new king, who ruled Judea, was King Antiochus IV, and he was a Syrian tyrant. He worshipped the Greek gods, and was rather devious. He did allow the Jews to worship Yahweh, because of this during the years of Syrian rule, many Jews started to embrace the Greek religion seeing it as tolerant. Those Jews that converted to the Hellenistic ways, helped Antiochus in his goal to abolish every trace of the Jewish religion.

Eventually, King Antiochus tired of the game and went into Jerusalem and took the treasures of the temple. He forbade the Jews from keeping their holy traditions, such as the Sabbath, kosher laws, studying their holy books, and the practice of circumcision.

To prove his point he desecrated the Holy Altar by sacrificing a forbidden, unclean pig on it. The Temple was then rededicated to the worship of Zeus Olympus. The Jews were forced to bow before the altar of Zeus under penalty of death. Antiochus went so far as to proclaim himself a god, taking the name Epiphanes, God manifest.

More Jews drifted into the Greek Ways, changed their names from Hebrew, and followed the Greek practices, giving up the ways of their ancestors. Many other Jews, resisted and refused to follow Greek practices, they would not bow down to the Greeks' pagan idols. The Greeks tried to get Jews to abandon the Torah and commandments.

A small group of Jews called the Maccabees, under the leadership of Judas Maccabee, employed guerrilla warfare and drove the Syrians out. The Maccabees regained control of the Holy Temple, and began the task of purifying it. When the Jews cleansed the temple of temple idols, they found only one small container of oil with only enough oil for one day to light their holy lamps. They decided to light the Menorah (the Temple candelabra) even with the small amount of oil. To everyone's amazement the menorah miraculously burned for eight days until new oil was available!

Here are some links to shed some more light on this holiday:

http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/hanukkah/index.html

http://www.ort.org/ort/hanukkah/

http://www.holidays.net/chanukah/

http://www.caryn.com/holiday/holiday-chan.html

http://www.joi.org/celebrate/hanuk/

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday and has only been celebrated since 1966 when Doctor Maulana Karenga decided that the African American community needed a holiday to celebrate their heritage and reflect on their daily lives to strengthen the community. Kwanzaa is celebrated December 26^th through January 1^st. Kwanzaa is derived from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza" which translates to 'first fruits". Swahili is the most widely spoken African language.

Kwanzaa centers around seven principles "The Nguzo Saba":

• Umoja (Unity): Unity on every level, personal, family and community.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To find and be your own person.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): Working together to make a strong community. Thinking of others and realizing that their problems are your own and must be solved together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain your own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make development of the community the goal of everyone within it.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do as best you can, in your own way those things that will leave the community better than we received it.
• Imani (Faith): To believe in yourself, your community and your causes with everything that is in you.

A candle represents each of these principles. These candles are placed in a special holder called a Kinara. The Kinara is placed on a mat (usually of straw) which is placed on a beautiful piece of cloth. The colors of Kwanzaa are red, green and black and used for the candles representing the seven principles (one black 3 red and 3 green). These colors symbolize the African people (black) Their Struggle (red) and Hope springing from their struggle (green). The black candle is placed in the center and lit first symbolizing Umoja. The other 6 candles are lit left to right (red to green) symbolizing the principles listed above, in the order listed. Also placed on the special table are "mazao" or crops which are represented by at least two ears of corn or one ear per child in the family. Every family, whether they have children or not, places the mazao on their table to show that children are the responsibility of the community in the spirit of traditional African social parenting. A" kikombe cha umoja" or unity cup is placed on the mat as well to pour libation or "tambiko" in honor of ancestors.

Kwanzaa lasts 7 nights and although gifts are exchanged they should be homemade, educational or inspirational gifts.

There is a great deal of information about this complex, inspirational holiday available. Here are some links with more information:

http://www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org/ - The Official Site

http://www.globalindex.com/kwanzaa/welcome.htm

http://www.tike.com/celeb-kw.htm

http://www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/

http://www.theholidayspot.com/kwanzaa/

Ramadan

The date of Ramadan changes each year as it is on the Islamic calendar which is a true lunar calendar, following the phases of the moon. It is an Muslim holiday that lasts the entire 9^th month of the year, which is also named Ramadan. This year Ramadan started on November 28^th.

Ramadan is a very holy holiday. It is believed that it was in this month that Allah (God) revealed the beginning of the Qur'an to Muhammad. Muhammad was a caravan trader who while wandering the desert one night questioning his faith heard the voice of the angel Gabriel from the sky telling him that Allah had chosen Muhammad to receive His words. Muhammad soon after found himself speaking what would become the Qur'an, the Holy book of Islam.

Ramadan is honored by daily fasting. During the daylight hours the faithful fast, this is known as Sawm and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Fasting reminds the Muslim of the poor and hungry, as well as being a cleansing of the body and mind. This continues for the entire month until the breaking of the fast "Eid al-Fitr" (this year December 27^th) one of the most important Islamic holidays. People decorate their homes and celebrate with family. This is also a time of giving to the less fortunate.

Here are some resources to further explore this holiday:

http://sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/Ramadan.html

http://www.ummah.org.uk/ramadhan/ram99/crescent/index.html

http://islam.org/ramadan/

http://www.factmonster.com/spot/ramadan1.html

http://www.holidays.net/ramadan/