A Hanukkah bush that some Jewish families display in their homes for the duration of Hanukkah and Christmas. Unlike a Christmas tree it would be without any Christianity-themed ornaments and use the colour blue.
Chrismukkah is a pop-culture portmanteauneologism referring to the merging of the holidays of Christianity's Christmas and Judaism's Hanukkah. It first arose in the German-speaking countries within middle-class Jews of the 19th century. After World War II, Chrismukkah became particularly popular in the United States, but is also celebrated in other countries.
The term was popularized beginning in December 2003 by the TV drama The O.C., wherein character Seth Cohen creates the holiday to signify his upbringing in an interfaith household with a Jewish father and Protestant mother. The holiday can also be adopted by all-Jewish households who celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday.
History
The proximity of the beginning of the Hanukkah festival on the 25th of Kislev (end of November/December) to Christmas led to the so-called "December Dilemma" for Jewish families living in societies that were largely Christian.[3] The history of an informal merger between Hanukkah and Christmas dates back to 19th century Germany and Austria. In German it is called Weihnukka, a combination of the words "Weihnachten" (Christmas) and "Hanukkah".[4]
In the 19th century, Christmas had established itself in the German-speaking countries as a festival in which, in addition to the spiritual significance, values such as family and charity were in the foreground. Christmas customs such as the Christmas tree, Christmas decorations, gifts or Christmas dinner were perceived more as a seasonal than a strictly Christian tradition. The proximity of the beginning of the Hanukkah festival to Christmas and the adoption of various traditions such as a decorated tree or gifts led to a mixture of traditions that were referred to as Weihnukka at the time. Modern Jewish families in particular adopted elements of the Christmas tradition in the Hanukkah festival. For example, Hanukkah gifts or money became common in the 19th century.[5] Many families from the assimilated German-Jewish bourgeoisie celebrated Christmas directly as a purely secular winter festival. The first historically documented Christmas tree was erected in Vienna in 1814 by the Jewish socialite Fanny von Arnstein, who had brought this custom from Berlin.[6] The founder of Zionism Theodor Herzl also celebrated Christmas or at least allowed a tree to be set up in his house for his children and suggested the name "Hanukkah Tree".[7][8][9] Common elements of this secular Christmas festival and its influence on the Hanukkah festival among Jews were a Hanukkah tree or Hanukkah bush as a counterpart to the Christmas tree, the Hanukkah Man, who, as a counterpart to Santa Claus, brought the presents for the children, or the Hanukkah calendar with eight flaps.[10]
After the Shoah and the associated near-extinction of Jewish life in central Europe, cultural life increasingly shifted to the United States. Here it became common to celebrate both festivals due to interfaith marriages between Jews and Christians and the associated wish of both partners to maintain their respective festivals and customs. The so-called “December dilemma” arose in Jewish families, namely the desire to add something similar to the popular festival of Christmas with its traditions, celebrations and gifts. Gifts for the Hanukkah festival in particular were to enhance this festival and contrast Christmas with something of equal emotional value.[11]
In the 1990s, the popular sitcom Friends often portrayed Jewish characters Rachel, Ross and Monica celebrating Christmas with their Christian friends, signifying many contemporary American Jewish households who celebrate Christmas in the strictly secular sense.[citation needed]
Chrismukkah was named for the first time, and prominently featured, in the FOX television program The O.C. (2003–2007). Show creator Josh Schwartz used the holiday (which the writers almost named "Hanimas"[12]) to depict, he later said,
[M]y experience as a Jewish kid from the East Coast coming to USC ... and being surrounded by all these kids from Newport Beach who were water-polo players, and these very blonde girls who only wanted to date them. I felt very much like an outsider. Even trying to talk about Hanukkah with some of them was like coming from an alien planet and talking about life there. The show is really about outsiders: Ryan was the most obvious outsider, as was Seth. The idea of a mixed [half-Jewish, half-Christian] family in Newport would also contribute to the Cohen outsider-family status. That part of their identity was always very important. Seth coined a holiday that would both celebrate and underline his outsider status in Newport. That led us to Chrismukkah.[13]
On The O.C., as a way to merge his parents' two faiths, Seth Cohen claims to have "created the greatest superholiday known to mankind"[14] when he was six years old. The series included annual Chrismukkah episodes for every season of its run. Particulars of when exactly the holiday was celebrated were not given; Seth simply said in the first season's Chrismukkah episode that it was "eight days of presents, followed by one day of many presents," with a stress on the word "many" (this was repeated in the second season's Chrismukkah episode by Seth's new brother Ryan, with an added "many"). The only references to how it was celebrated, other than the family displaying both a Christmas tree and a Hanukkah menorah, was that the Cohens spent Christmas Day itself at home eating Chinese takeout and watching movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Fiddler on the Roof on TV (as opposed to going out for Chinese food and seeing a movie, as many American Jews have done for years). Chrismukkah later received mention in the television series Grey's Anatomy.
In 2004, Chrismukkah.com was launched by Ron and Michelle Gompertz, a Jewish-Christian intermarried couple in Bozeman, Montana. Their website took the fictional O.C. Chrismukkah and brought it into reality, selling humorous Chrismukkah greeting cards and dispensing detailed mythology about the fictional holiday. The Chrismukkah.com website was widely credited with popularizing Chrismukkah to a non-television watching audience.[15] Chrismukkah.com stirred up controversy in the Fall of 2004 when the New York Catholic League issued a national press release opposing Chrismukkah. Further, The Catholic League and the New York Board of Rabbis, in a joint statement, condemned Chrismukkah as "insulting" to Jews and Christians.[15]
In December 2004, Chrismukkah was listed in Time magazine as one of the buzzwords of the year.[16] It was also reported in a Scottish newspaper, that Chrismukkah had been added to the authoritative "Chambers" dictionary.[17] In 2005, Chrismukkah.com founder Ron Gompertz authored a humorous book of Chrismukkah recipes called Chrismukkah! The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook. Gompertz's follow-up book, entitled Chrismukkah – Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday (published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was released in October 2006. A rival book by Gersh Kuntzman, Chrismukkah: The Official Guide to the World's Best-Loved Holiday (Sasquatch Press), came out at around the same time. In "A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish,"(Rutgers University Press, 2013) author Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, Ph.D discusses Chrismukkah and the creation of Festivus and other hybrid holidays among Jews in America during December. In 2006 USA Today described Chrismukkah as "[t]he newest faux holiday that companies are using to make a buck this season".[15] Chrismukkah is also celebrated as an ironic, alternative holiday, much like the Seinfeld-derived "Festivus".
In 2005, the sunset of December 25 coincided with 25 Kislev, the first night of Hanukkah, making Christmas Day and the beginning of Hanukkah the same day. This will not happen again until 2024. In 2016, the sunset of December 24 coincided with 25 Kislev, the first day of Hanukkah, making Christmas Eve and the beginning of Hanukkah the same day.[20][21] This will not happen again until 2027.[21]
Similar holidays
A similarly named holiday called Christmanukkah was featured in The Strangerhood. Unlike Chrismukkah, Christmanukkah is twenty days long (twelve days of Christmas and another eight for Hanukkah), and all of the days are spent receiving gifts and eating until passing out. Pants and pumpkin cider are considered a traditional gift.[citation needed]
Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.
Kislev or Chislev, also 'Chisleu' in the King James Bible, is the third month of the civil year and the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. In the Babylonian calendar its name was Araḫ Kislimu.
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.
Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote.
Ryan Francis Atwood is a fictional character on the Fox television series The O.C., portrayed by Ben McKenzie. Atwood is an outcast and troubled teenager from Chino, California, who is given a second chance when the wealthy Cohen family takes him in.
The observance of Christmas around the world varies by country. The day of Christmas, and in some cases the day before and the day after, are recognized by many national governments and cultures worldwide, including in areas where Christianity is a minority religion. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration ; in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday.
A Hanukkah menorah, or hanukkiah, is a nine-branched candelabrum lit during the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Eight of the nine branches hold lights that symbolize the eight nights of the holiday; on each night, one more light is lit than the previous night, until on the final night all eight branches are ignited. The ninth branch holds a candle, called the shamash, which is used to light the other eight.
"The Strike" is the 166th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the tenth episode of the ninth and final season. It aired on December 18, 1997. This episode features and popularized the holiday of Festivus.
Weihnachten is the observance of what is commonly known in English as Christmas in the German-speaking countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is also widespread in countries with a German-speaking minority, such as Transylvania in Romania, South Tyrol in Italy, Eupen in Belgium, and various diasporas such as the German Brazilian and German American communities. Traditions of Weihnachten influenced Advent and Christmastide culture throughout the world.
Lists of holidays by various categorizations.
The celebration of Christmas in Nazi Germany included attempts by the regime to bring the Christian religious holiday into line with Nazi ideology. The Jewish origins of Jesus and the commemoration of his birth as the Jewish Messiah was troubling for some members of the Nazi Party and their racialist beliefs. Between 1933 and 1945, some government officials attempted to remove these aspects of Christmas from civil celebrations and concentrate on cultural pre-Christian aspects of the festival. However, church and private celebrations remained Christian in nature.
The White House Hanukkah Party is an annual reception held at the White House and hosted by the U.S. President and First Lady to recognize and celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The tradition was established in 2001, during the administration of George W. Bush. The guest list includes hundreds of American Jewish politicians, organization heads, and school and yeshiva deans.
A Hanukkah bush is a bush or tree—real or artificial—that some Jewish families in North America display in their homes for the duration of Hanukkah. It may, for all intents and purposes, be a Christmas tree with Jewish-themed ornaments. It is associated with Chrismukkah.
Thanksgivukkah is a holiday name portmanteau neologism given to the convergence of the American holiday of Thanksgiving and the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Thursday, November 28, 2013. It was the result of a rare coincidence between the lunisolar Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar. Because the calendars are not calculated the same way, Hanukkah appears from year to year on different dates on the Gregorian calendar, ranging from late November to early January.
Miracle of the cruse of oil, or the Miracle of Hanukkah, is an Aggadah depicted in the Babylonian Talmud as one of the reasons for Hanukkah. In the story, the miracle occurred after the liberation of the Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt, and it describes the finding of a jug of pure oil that was to be enough to light the lamp for one day, but that lasted for eight days.
Second Purim, also called Purim Katan, is a celebratory day uniquely observed by a Jewish community or individual family to commemorate the anniversary of its deliverance from destruction, catastrophe, or an antisemitic ruler or threat. Similar to the observance of the Jewish holiday of Purim, Second Purims were typically commemorated with the reading of The Megillah about the events that led to the salvation, specially-composed prayers, a festive meal, and the giving of charity. In some cases, a fast day was held the day before. Second Purims were established by hundreds of communities in the Jewish diaspora and in the Land of Israel under foreign rule. Most Second Purims are no longer observed.
A Hanukkah film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Films in this style traditionally incorporate the religious aspects of Hanukkah, such as lighting the menorah and the story of the Maccabees, as well as the cultural aspects of Hanukkah, such as spinning dreidels, or eating traditional foods such as latkes, sufganiyot, or gelt. Films in this genre are typically similar to comedy and romantic comedy films in content, however some are similar in style to action, drama, and animated films, among other genres. Hanukkah films are more commonly produced in the United States, however, they are also produced in other countries such as Israel.
Rosh Chodesh L'Banot, also known as Chag HaBanot, and in Arabic as Eid al-Banat, is a holiday celebrated by some Jewish communities in the Middle East on Rosh Chodesh of the Jewish month of Tevet, during the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. The Jewish community where the holiday was most preserved is in Tunisia. But there is also evidence that it was also celebrated in Jewish communities in Libya, Algeria, Kushta, Istanbul, Morocco and Thessaloniki.
Throughout the history of Christianity, Jewish peoples have been historically religious minorities in countries that were majority or even officially Christian. Over time, a unique relationship evolved between the Jews and the major Christian holiday of Christmas, including the creation of separate traditions and the intersection of Hanukkah and Christmas, among other convergences. Some practices perpetuate out of a feeling of otherness, while others are merely lighthearted activities that are accessible when shops are closed around Christmastime.
↑ Amann, Joseph and Tom Breuer (2007). Fair and Balanced, My Ass!: An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News. New York: Nation Books. ISBN1-56858-347-8
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