Preview

Hanukkah And Christmas: Similarities And Differences

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
615 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hanukkah And Christmas: Similarities And Differences
Hanukkah and Christmas
Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Have you ever heard those phrases before? Children say it to their parents, teachers, friends, and their neighbors. December has several holidays in it, but everyone kind of knows the two which is Hanukkah and Christmas. Hanukkah is the eight-day Jewish celebrates the re-dedication during the second century B.C of the second temple in Jerusalem. Christmas is celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December in honor of the day Jesus was born. Both Hanukkah and Christmas are two holidays where you spend time with your families and be thankful. Although, they share the same month, Hanukkah and Christmas are two holidays that have similarities and differences.
Hanukkah and Christmas has some stunning
…show more content…
There as, there are important things you can learn for the first time. Hanukkah became a holiday because, of enemies taking over the Jewish temples and the Jewish people came together to take back what was theirs. Which started the different traditions for this special holiday. Hanukkah is filled with many different traditions. Now, there is a festival, which at the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah lighting. The menorah holds nine flames, one of which is the sham-ash (“attendant”), which is used to kindle the other eight lights. (“What is the difference between Hanukkah and Christmas?” Reference)
There are traditional songs sung when lighting the menorah. Then, there is the family gathering when everyone is enjoying the traditional fried foods to celebrate as part of the holiday activities.
Here comes Christmas; Christmas has many activities to relish. There is the myth about Santa Clause for the kids to believe that he brings gifts for Christmas which leads for the children to leave milk for Santa Clause. Next, there are Christmas Carols sung and Christmas programs and plays being held in schools and churches. Also, Christmas is all about being thankful and being with family members for the holidays. Then here comes the family traditional Christmas lunch, where everyone brings food to the table just to be sharing and kind. It’s just a blessing to be with everyone you love and care about on

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Jews celebrate Hanukkah, which means “dedication” , and lasts for eight day, beginning on the 25th of the Hebrew month Kislev (November-December). It celebrates the victory…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hanukkah Research Paper

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages

    People on Hanukkah gather around each other and sing songs. They eat great meals with many interesting foods. They light one candle on the Menorah per night. Jewish people get one present per night for eight nights. The Shamash holds Holds the 9 candles of Hanukkah.…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When they reach Toronto there was a warm welcome by the grandmother, everything was ready for dinner. Zada who was the grandfather took them to the Menorah, and blessings the Hanukkah candles. Zada told the history of the celebration to the author. Hanukkah’s celebration of the victory of the Jewish People about their migration to Jerusalem in 5th century BC and they become familiar to the new place. But in 175 BC the Jewish people are forced to follow Greek religion. Despite of that in 168 BC a Jewish priest Mattathias stood up for his religion and killed the captain and the traitor who was forcing the people to eat meat of pig. After this time they move to the hills and then their movement started which was called the Maccabee uprisings. With the passage of time the Jewish people reclaimed the Jerusalem and also the temple. For the celebration the event in 165 BC, there was the oil to burn the lamp for one day but the lamps burn for eight days till they could find more oil. That was a miracle for the people. People believed this event specially and then Hanukkah celebration began.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Families fill the Christmas tree with ornaments, candy canes and tinsel. Decorating an evergreen fir tree has been a tradition for approximately a thousand years. Pagans used the branches to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, making them think of the spring to come. Majority of houses during the Christmas season are decorated with lights. Some families host Christmas light shows. They have millions of lights synchronized with music and have dancing Santas. The best way to enjoy decorating is with Christmas carols. Few people go door to door caroling for others. Early christians caroled to show praise and…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evolution Of Christmas

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Winston Churchill once said, “Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.” As the big day draws near, it is important to reflect on the roots of the global holiday as well as the direction in which it is heading. Christmas is a tradition rooted deep in the history of western society. It has undergone many changes since it’s earliest celebrations. Even today, the holiday is constantly changing. Each year brings new innovations to Christmas. In the dawn of the holiday, it was minor and focused on the birth of Jesus, the light of the world. In the 19th century, Christmas was a time of family and goodwill to mankind. Today, though there still remains aspects of religion and selflessness, more than ever it has become a holiday consumed by commercialism. It is a development that is not likely to go way any time soon.…

    • 1609 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hanukkah = Is when Jewish people celebrate the miracle of the oil lasting eight days in the temple – Dreidel Game, together the letters stand for “A Great Miracle Happened There” Gelt – cold chocolate coins is what you put in the pot when playing Dreidel.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christmas vs Thanksgiving

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Christmas is one of the most incredible times of the year; snow on the ground, a warm fire in the living room, and twinkly lights around every turn. When I was young, I loved Christmas. Toys and treats had me in a daze for almost a week straight. I was a typical kid, and my focus during any holiday was, “What do I get? Who brought me presents?”. I never realized the true meaning of why we have holidays, other than presents, until I was seventeen years old. As I’ve started to see my family less and my co-workers more, I understand that the true meaning of holidays in general, is to spend time with our loved ones. Taking my new found wisdom into account, my opinion of the “best holiday of the year” has changed from Christmas to Thanksgiving. My views, including favorite holiday, have changed because my focus on what’s important has matured.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This year, Hanukkah started at sunset on Sunday, December 6, and will end on Monday, December 14. It is known as the Festival of Lights and celebrates the Israelites defeating the Syrian Greek army and reclaiming and rededicating the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Jews sought to light the temple’s menorah, but they only found enough oil to light the menorah for a day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which is the time it too for new oil to be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. A candle is lit each night leading up to the eighth night of Hanukkah, where all eight lights are kindled. There are many customs observed using Hanukkah including eating food fried in oil such as latkes sufganiyot; playing with the dreidel; and the…

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    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…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Christmas plays as the best season every year. But first, what is Christmas? Christmas meaning "Christ 's Mass" is an annual commemoration of the holy birth of Jesus Christ as the son of God and a widely observed cultural holiday, celebrated generally on December 25 by millions of people around the world. Christmas has become such an important holiday for so many people around the world that it has developed its own traditions far beyond its original scope. Unfortunately,…

    • 10808 Words
    • 44 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The history of Christmas starts over 4000 years ago. This christmas traditions were celebrated many time before Jesus was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the giving of gifts, singing songs while going from house to house, the parties, and going to the church.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christmas: American Culture vs Christians Santa. Jesus. Red and green. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Xmas.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Walking Dead Traditions

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages

    My family celebrates Christmas. Christmas is my personal favorite holiday, for mostly selfish reasons, but reasons none the less. On Christmas Eve we start by going to my grandparents house and having a big dinner and opening stockings that my grandma hand made for us when we were born. Then when we get home the first thing we do is unload the stuff from our grandparents house and get ready for bed. My siblings and I go into our parents bedroom and get on Santa Tracker immediately so we know when we should go to bed. This year that might change though, becuase Miles, my little brother, knows about Santa now. We find a Christmas movie or two then settle down on the floor or bed. Usually we watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Elf. We watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas because when we first started the tradition that is what we watched and the second movie because it is our favorite Christmas movie us. The tradition started one year when for Christmas we got new furniture for our rooms and we could not be in our rooms while they were putting the furniture together. Basically the tradition started as a trick and we liked it so much, we thought, let's do it again next year a couple of times. I suppose that is how most traditions start though. The idea behind the tradition is that we all wake up together and we all see the presents at the same…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The holiday Christmas has traditionally represented the birth of Jesus Christ. Christians worldwide have celebrated December 25 as their God’s birthday; however, Christians have held no historical significance to the holiday. Most customs involved in Christmas have originated from ancient pagan celebrations. The customs have dated back to events like Saturnalia and the Unconquered Sun, proving the ideas stemmed from pagan roots not Christian.…

    • 1149 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many beautiful sights you see only at Christmas time. People are everywhere, rushing to and fro in an effort to find that perfect gift. The whole world seems covered in tiny white or colored lights; they are winking from almost every house on every street. The deep green Christmas trees are covered in them, and the brightly colored ornaments hanging on the trees reflect their soft glow. The limbs of the Christmas trees are drooping with the weight of the special treasures they hold, ornaments that hold special meaning in the hearts and minds of the families. Presents are heaped under the tree, the bright colors of the wrapping paper calling to the lucky person whose name is written on the tag. On every face there are looks of expectation and of exultation. The bright eyes of the children betray their joy and eagerness about the coming of Santa Claus. There are also nativity scenes in many yards and homes which tell the story of the birth of our Lord and Savior, the real reason we celebrate Christmas. The Christmas season is full of beauty and wonder.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays