Holidays Are Where The Heart Is

We are Jewish.  Our home is a Jewish home.  We celebrate Jewish holidays and a mezzuzah can be found on all of the doorways in our house.  My children attend Hebrew school to learn to read Hebrew and for their religious education.  Both of my boys have a VERY STRONG Jewish identity.  I follow several blogs/websites about Judaism.  Recently with the holiday of Valentine's day upon us I have come across a lot of articles discussing whether or not Jewish families should or should not celebrate a holiday such as Valentine's day since it is not a Jewish holiday.

The Judaism that my family follows is Reform Judaism meaning that we are not very literal in our practice and we are more progressive/modern in our practice.  For example we do not keep kosher and we do not adhere to a dress code the way that Orthodox Jews might and we don't observe the Sabbath in a literal sense, we use lights/electricity and travel on the Sabbath.  I also am a strong believer in making my children as worldly as I possibly can.  I believe that just because we are not traditionally part of something doesn't mean we can't partake in it and learn from it or about it.  For example, one of my close friends, Sessa is Catholic and celebrates holidays such as Christmas.  Every year Sessa invites me and my family to join her and her family for Christmas eve dinner and every year like clockwork we attend!  I strongly believe and always tell me children that the highest honor someone can give you is to invite you into their home to share in their customs.  This is exactly what happens with Sessa and her family with my family.  We have also gone to my childhood friend Elisa's home on Christmas day and shared in the fun and joys of her family's holiday traditions.  This to me is an honor and a blessing.

As a reform Jew I allow my children to take part in secular holidays.  The secular holidays are a part of the world that we live in and belong to.  They attend public school where Valentine's day parties are given.  They get the opportunity to write out cute and funny cards to show their friends that they really like them and enjoy yummy treats together.  During Halloween they get to attend parties in costume at school as well as in our home.  The religious or pagan aspect of Halloween has been long debated and I don't believe or practice in any religious or pagan aspect of the holiday.  I take from Halloween the opportunity to dress up and be anyone in our wildest dreams or the opportunity to dress up and become a real life play on words or something completely ridiculous and funny as well a plethora of candy and yummy goodies.  Anyone who knows me well is painfully aware that Halloween to me is the equivalent of Christmas to most those who celebrate it.  I love the opportunity to be silly, goofy and maybe a little creepy too.  I have brainwashed my children well into playing along with my Halloween shennanigans!

During the winter holiday season I decorate our home in a combination of Chanukah and winter solstice themes.  Even as a Jew, I do believe there should be some Christ in Christmas and therefore in our home we don't decorate for Christmas because we do believe and see that as a religious holiday that we don't observe in that nature.  I will decorate the house a little bit for Valentine's day because (and I don't know any non-Jewish people who celebrate a religious aspect of that holiday) we don't associate this holiday with anything religious.  We acknowledge the day as a day to spread love a little bit more than usual.  The same goes for St. Patrick's day and that is mainly because my boys are dedicated to an annual fundraiser held on the Saturday of St. Patrick's day every year called St. Baldrick's which raises money to cure childhood cancer. Again, there is no religious aspect that we are acknowledging nor do I know anyone who celebrates the religious side to St. Patrick's day other than drinking a whole lot of beer and eating corned beef!!!

Maybe you could say that I'm picking and choosing what secular holidays we "celebrate" or acknowledge in some fashion based on what I like or what I choose to believe or not believe and maybe there's some truth there.  I'd like to think that I'm just being open minded and allowing and giving my children the chance to take part in things other than Jewish things.  The world that my family lives in is filled with a lot of people from a lot of different places.   I like to explore that.  I hope that my children will want to explore the interesting things around them that are not necessarily part of their everyday intimate world.  I'm also by no mean saying that those who choose to only celebrate and acknowledge Jewish holidays are wrong in that belief and following.  They are not wrong.  That is their choice to live the way they want to live.  I'm just sharing the way we chose to live among the holidays of the world Jewish or not.  Like I said, there has been a lot of chatter among the Jewish based blogs regarding the secular holidays, this is just my take on it.

With that I bid you a happy Valentine's day!  May you take a moment today to show those around you how much you love them and care about them (in the form of chocolate is always a good way to go).

Tootles
Ro