Skip to main content

2024 Holiday’s Rumination's

In this episode, 2024 Holiday’s Rumination's . . . 

Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah!

Did you know that Christmas Day this year is also the first day of Hanukkah? While watching Sunday Morning, our go-to news program, they did a segment on the fact that these two holidays will occur this year, 2024, on the same day. This is due to the different calendars used to determine the dates for each holiday: the Gregorian calendar for Christmas and the Hebrew calendar for Hanukkah.

According to AI, In recent history, This has happened only four times in the last 100 years. The next time Christmas and Hanukkah overlap is in 2035 and then again in 2054. I hear you asking, so what? Over the past two years, I’ve met with Dr. Don Hanley—a former priest who left the ministry to marry. We meet biweekly for lunch, discussing topics from religion and philosophy to science, history, politics, and human nature. He was raised in the strict Catholic tradition in the 1940s, while I was raised independent of any formal religion.

However, living in Cuba and growing up in the States, we–as children– “adopted” Christmas as our December holiday, not because of the traditions of the local churches in our town: Cuba–Church of the Nazarene, the Christian Church, and the United Methodist Church, but because it was the dominant community tradition.

Christmas was everywhere, from decorations on the square with holiday lights to Santa Land at our local True Value Hardware store to Christmas trees sold at Day and Palins, our local IGA. Moreover, television promoted Christmas with children's programs like A Charlie Brown Christmas. Who can forget Linus and his classic oration on stage, delivering his rendition from the King James Version of the Bible: “And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Also, NORAD Tracks Santa has been sharing Santa’s whereabouts with the news media since the 1970s. But did you know that the tradition started in 1955 with a hilarious misdialed call?

So, what is Hanukkah?

Hanukkah, or Chanukah, is the Jewish Festival of Lights. In Hebrew, it means "dedication." It celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, after the Maccabees' successful rebellion against the Seleucid Empire.

Key to the story is the miracle of the oil, where enough oil for one day lasted eight days. The main tradition is lighting the menorah, a nine-branched candelabra. Traditional foods include latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts), which symbolize the miracle. Common customs are playing dreidel and exchanging gifts. Hanukkah is a time of joy and reaffirming Jewish identity.

So, as you can see, there were no Catholic Churches, no Jewish Synagogues.

It wasn’t until moving to New York City in 1991 that I experienced the Catholic & Jewish traditions and their people. Since then, I’m honored to call many of my good friends Jewish and Catholic.

This raises the question: What can we learn from this year's conjunction of holidays? Consider this: the holiday spirit promotes a feeling of warmth, generosity, hope, peace, and goodwill. It can manifest in many ways, regardless of religious affiliation (I’ve listed seven).

  1. Acts of Kindness: During the holidays, people are more likely to volunteer their time, donate to charity, and help those in need.
  2. Family Gatherings: Many cherish spending time with loved ones, sharing meals, laughter, and cherished memories.
  3. Community Spirit: Holiday events like parades, concerts, and tree lighting foster a sense of togetherness and shared joy within a community.
  4. Appreciation and Gratitude: The holidays often encourage reflection on our lives' blessings, fostering a sense of gratitude and appreciation for loved ones, health, and good fortune.
  5. Promotes Gratitude: Focusing on our blessings cultivates an attitude of gratitude, which can increase happiness and well-being.
  6. Inspires Generosity: Sharing blessings can inspire others to be generous in their ways, creating a ripple effect of kindness and compassion.
  7. Overcomes Division: In a world that often emphasizes our differences, reminding ourselves of the shared blessings we enjoy as human beings can help bridge divides and foster a greater sense of unity.

Friends, the holiday spirit transcends any religion or belief. It embodies our shared values of kindness, compassion, and connection.


So, “God Bless Us, everyone.” - Tiny Tim.


I’m Patrick Ball. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! Thanks for listening. I’ll see you in the next episode.

Comments

Don Hanley said…
pATRICK - Thank you for this very Spiritual and thoughtful message!
Anonymous said…
Wonderful post!! We are so grateful to have you and Lori’s kind souls as our friends. Happy Holidays!

Most Popular of All Time

We Need Awe More Than Ever

In this episode, Why We Need Awe More Than Ever Yesterday morning, I slipped into the cool stillness of my backyard before dawn. The air was crisp, the silence deep—broken only by the faint rustling of leaves and the familiar calls of birds waking early. Then I looked up. A thin crescent moon hung low in the east, with Venus just above it like a shining jewel. The sky was clear and full of stars, and for a moment, I felt something I hadn’t in a long time: Awe! For thousands of years, the heavens have carried on their steady dance, untouched by human noise. No ruler, no election, no breaking news has ever changed their rhythm. And yet here I was, tempted to reach for my phone—to trade the eternal for the urgent. Instead, I stayed. I watched the moonrise, the sky slowly lighten, and the world around me stir. Ducks passed overhead in a loose V, hummingbirds zipped past to visit their feeder, pausing mid-air as if curious about me sitting so still. Little by little, the static in my mind f...

The Birth of a Cubs Legend

In this episode, The 162-Game Exhale — and the Birth of a Cubs Legend There’s a hush in the baseball world on Game 162 — a collective breath drawn in and slowly released. Scoreboards stop flipping. Dugouts empty. For six months, the game has been our steady heartbeat, pulsing from the cherry blossoms of Tokyo in March to the crisp, playoff-charged winds of late September. And now, as the regular season exhales, baseball fans everywhere pause to absorb the story we’ve just lived. For me, that story has been deeply personal. This season unfolded in the rhythms of my daily life. It was the summer soundtrack echoing beneath the constant turmoil of politics and sensational headlines. It was a handful of carefully chosen ballpark pilgrimages stitched together with countless nights in front of MLB.TV. And at the center of it all, for a lifelong Cubs fan like me, it revolved around one name — a young center fielder who turned hope into history: Pete Crow-Armstrong. The 2025 season didn’t begin...

The Silent Grid–Part Two

In this episode, The Silent Grid – Part Two Sirens split the night as Greenwood went dark. Marvin knew instantly—the blackout wasn’t an accident. It was a warning. In this quiet town, where life once unfolded at a predictable pace, a sleek, intuitive smartphone—a so-called gift from the future —has arrived. But it’s no tool for connection. It’s a silent force, erasing individuality and turning neighbors into something less than human. Marvin Gellborn, a man who values independence, sees the truth. His device isn’t helping; it’s testing him, watching him, and quietly embedding itself into the life of Greenwood. Welcome back to On the Fly . In this week’s episode of The Silent Grid , GridBot tightens its grip. After a hopeful community gathering, Marvin and his robot companion, Norman, notice a troubling absence—the very generation they hoped to reach has vanished into the neon glow of The Signal Box , a youth tech hub pulsing with digital obsession. When Greenwood’s lights vanish, Marvi...

The Pessimism Aversion Trap

In this episode, The Pessimism Aversion Trap Picture this: a room full of bright minds nodding in agreement as a bold new strategy is unveiled. The slides are polished, the vision is grand, and the future, we're told, has never looked brighter. Everyone beams—because who wants to be the one to say, "Um… this might not work"? Heaven forbid someone spoil the mood with a dose of reality. Better to smile, add a buzzword or two, and march confidently toward disaster. That's how the Pessimism Aversion Trap works. Even now, I can still hear the sound—a high-pitched shriek and a digital hum, followed by the slow, rhythmic clatter of data pouring from a 5¼-inch floppy disk. It was the late 1980s, and my makeshift home office (our living room) was dominated by what felt like a marvel of modern engineering: a used Tandy 1000 PC with not one, but two floppy drives. To top it off, we purchased a 'blisteringly fast' 300-baud modem—which, for the uninitiated, could downloa...