Getting caught up in the hustle and bustle and buying of gifts at this time of the year is both fun and stressful. It’s not very often that we take the time to step back and think about the history of the traditions.
Hanukkah gifts aplenty are not part of the traditional observance of this holiday, as many now believe, nor is the holiday of great significance in the Jewish religion. Hanukkah is observed to remember a miracle: after the Jews succeeded in driving out oppressors and taking back the temple, only enough oil was available to produce light for a single night. Yet, that oil burned eight nights, long enough to make additional oil. The lighting of one candle in the menorah each night for eight nights commemorates this miracle.
Although small gifts of money are an ancient Hanukkah tradition, the giving of many gifts is not. Instead, this practice has been borrowed recently from the Christian culture by Jews who live in countries where such gift-giving is common.
But wait! The giving of many gifts at Christmas isn’t really a Christian tradition, either! True the original “wise men” took gifts to Jesus, but the Bible isn’t clear when this occurred. The visit was anywhere between 40 days and two years after his birth, not on his birthday.
In fact, the timing of Christmas has very little to do with the actual date of Christ’s birth. Sometime in the third or fourth century, the Roman church chose December 25th as the official time to observe Jesus’s birth, but this was not meant to be historically accurate. Instead, the date coincides with the festival of the Roman god, Saturn, at the time of the Winter Solstice (when the hours of light begin to exceed the hours of darkness). The church adopted this festival and called it the mass of Christ – “Christmas.” By absorbing such festivals and traditions, the church hoped to retain those pagans who had converted to Christianity and attract others.
The gift-giving tradition actually began in earnest, in the US at least, in the early- to mid-1800s. Its origins, according to scholars, were partly commercial and partly a matter of public safety. By the 1820s, Christmas celebrations were becoming increasingly disruptive, particularly in industrializing urban areas. It became “traditional” for mobs of the poor to take to the streets to forcefully “beg” gifts and drinks from those more prosperous, yelling threats, pounding on doors and worse.
In response, a campaign was begun to move Christmas celebrations off the streets and inside, into the family circle. Clement Clark Moore, author of A Visit From St. Nicholas (better known now as The Night Before Christmas) was among those who were instrumental in producing this change by vigorously promoting the ideals in his poem.
So, does this mean we shouldn’t give gifts at Hanukkah or Christmas? No, of course not. But it does mean we should think about why we are giving them and about the original significance of the event we are commemorating.
