Hanukkah: A Feminist Analysis

As with most biblical stories, it's hard to say just how much historical truth lurks within the Purim story. But looking at more recent history, it's clear that Esther and Vashti do have a real history as feminist symbols. Both, in their own ways, refuse to go along with their husbands wishes. As early as the 19th century, her resistance to her husband's wish to use her as a sex object made her icon for early feminists. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote in 1878 that Vashti's decision was a “first stand for women's rights” and that “we shall stand amazed that there was a woman found at the head of the Persian empire that dared to disobey the command even of a drunken monarch.”
About twenty years later, the Woman's Bible commentary put together by suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton called Vashti “a sublime representative of self-centred womanhood” who rises “to the heights of self-consciousness and of self respect.”
Hanukkah is one of the second main holidays for the Jewish. Hanukkah (also known as the Festival of lights) is not mentioned in the bible. Although Hanukkah is considered a “minor” Jewish festival , today it ranks along with passover and Purim as one of the most
North American Jews use the holiday as a celebration of family, reinforcing Jewish identity in a place whose population may be overwhelmingly Christian but in which Jews feel at home.
Finally Rosh Hashanah is the third main holiday. Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of Tishri. In hebrew Rosh Hashanah means, literally, “head of the year” or “first of the year.” Rosh Hashanah is also known as the Jewish New Year. This name is deceptive, because there is a similarity between Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year and the American midnight drinking bash and daytime football