F6: Chanukah

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Adam's festival

This point is excellently illustrated in the following Talmudic legend concerning the very first human being, Adam. The Talmud notes that there were some pagan festivals lasting eight days around the time of the winter solstice and attempts to explain the source of these festivals. The sages of the Talmud (writing around the first century C.E.) trace this pagan festival to a ceremony first enacted by Adam.

"Adam saw the days getting gradually shorter, he said: "Woe is me, because I have sinned and the world around me is darkening and returning to its state of chaos and confusion; this then is the kind of death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven!". So he began keeping an eight day fast. But as he noticed the winter equinox and the days getting longer , he said: this is the natural world's course and he set forth eight days festivity. He fixed them for the sake of heaven, but the heathens appointed them for the sake of idolatry."

Initially, Adam was scared because he had never experienced the days getting shorter before. Once he got past the winter solstice and the days began to get longer again he realised that this was a law of nature.

This seems to be the very opposite of the celebration at Chanukah. The two reasons we have explored in order to understand the Chanukah festivities celebrate something occurring that was unexpected, something miraculous. Be it the unexplicable case of oil for one day lasting for eight or the highly unlikely case of the few triumphing over the many, Chanukah celebrates the extraordinary. Adam's festival celebrates the exact opposite; Adam is celebrating the ordinary, the existence of the laws of nature themselves.

Expect the unexpected

Hold on a second. Adam's festival is beginning to sound familiar. An eight day festival around the time of the Winter's solstice. A festival to do with lights. In fact, there are many festivals surrounding the time of the Winter Solstice that have been around for centuries and are still continuing. In Frazer's famous "Golden Bough", he describes a Roman New Year festival, starting on the 17th of December lasting several days Feasting and revelry and all the mad pursuits of pleasure are the features that we seem to have specially marked this carnival of antiquity." So, even earlier then both Christmas and Chanukah, this time of the year was full of festivity and light. Indeed it has been suggested that the reason that the Hasmoneans chose this period to rededicate the Temple was because of the existence of earlier festivals on this date, and historians too suggest that some the Christmas customs date from earlier Pagan festivities. Could this be the reason why there are so many parallels between Christmas and Chanukah - they were both founded upon similar earlier festive traditions?

Be it Adam's festival or the Winter Solstice; they both celebrate the seasons, the order in nature and the expected. The festival of Chanukah celebrates the supernatural, the irregular in nature and the unexpected. At this time of the year the two come together. It is much easier to celebrate the miraculous then the natural, we have got use to expecting the natural. The combination of Adam's festival and Chanukah reminds us not to forget to celebrate the natural and the expected too. So let's celebrate and understand...after all, it is the season to be merry!

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