The Miracle of light

As the world has fun with Thanksgivukkah (chanukah starts tonight at sunset), I find myself inundated with misinterpretations of one of the minor holidays. So...let me start the season by clearing up a few things.

 Chanukah is NOT a Jewish Christmas.
Chanukah has only one spelling in Hebrew. All the different the English spellings are variation of transliteration.
Chanukah always starts on the same date on the Jewish calendar, which is a moon calendar, and as such does not alight with the Gregorian sun calendar. 
We do not get or give a gift for each night. 
There is no such thing as a Chanukah bush.
AND.....wait for it....this is NOT the celebration of light over darkness....except in a very metaphorical sense. 

This is a holiday celebrating a small war that was won by a small group of Jews who refused to assimilate. We celebrate it by commemorating the miracle of faith. If you don't know the story, after the war, the Maccabees cleaned the temple which had been desecrated by the Seleucid Empire. The final task was to light the holy lamp that burned 24 a day with the purified olive oil. There was only enough oil for one day, but the lamp burned for seven, giving the people enough time to purify more.

So...we light one candle on the first night, and add another one each subsequent night, to celebrate this miracle of oil. Which is also why we eat fried food.

BUT....I think that the real miracle happened when people rejected the force of assimilation, when they chose to align with an inner compass, and when a lamp was lit with the faith that the fire would burn...even with all evidence suggesting these were ridiculous choices.

In some way, this holiday is about our choices to be more than we think we can be. We are not destined to follow the majority. We are not doomed to absorbed into the predominate mind set, or to be governed by the interpretations of others.

We can all go beyond our skills and capabilities. We can always reach further and climb higher. We are more than out titles and our history and our assumptions and our old nightmares.

So yes...in some ways this is a festival of light over darkness...but it is so very much more. 

NOTE: pictures of the wedding dress lighting candles tonight!!!