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.

Labels:

Comments

Don Hanley said…
pATRICK - Thank you for this very Spiritual and thoughtful message!
December 28, 2024 at 2:41 PM
Anonymous said…
Wonderful post!! We are so grateful to have you and Lori’s kind souls as our friends. Happy Holidays!
December 29, 2024 at 9:52 AM
Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

When Fear Becomes the Default

In this special episode, When Fear Becomes the Default. Early Sunday morning, I was cycling past a small veterans’ pocket park in San Marcos. The air was still, the streets nearly empty. On one corner stood a young woman, alone, holding a hand-painted sign that read: “Be ANGRY. ICE agents are murdering people.” I pedaled past, but the words stayed with me. I knew the context—the footage and headlines from Minneapolis the day before, already ricocheting through the country and hardening opinions. Even in the quiet of the ride, the noise followed. Two miles later, I stopped at a red light. A black car with dark windows pulled up inches from my bike. My heart jumped. My first instinct wasn’t neighbor —it was threat . I found myself bracing, scanning, and wondering if the person inside was angry, armed, or looking for trouble. Then the door opened. A well-dressed young woman stepped out, walked to the trunk, and pulled out a sign that read “Open House.” She turned, smiled brightly, and sa...
2 comments
Read more

The Language of Home: Building a Sanctuary

This episode is  for anyone trying to find their footing in a new place—whether it’s a new city, a new job, or a new country. The light in Florence, Italy, has a way of making everything feel like a Renaissance painting—the golden hue on the stone, the steady rhythm of the Arno River, and the feeling that you are walking through a history much larger than yourself. I was there to give a presentation to a class of Gemology students. I was prepared to discuss color grading and refractive indices, but not to be outed as a language tutor . Feeling very much like a guest in a storied land, a hand shot up enthusiastically. "You’re the guy on the podcasts," the young woman said, her eyes bright with recognition. "You’re the one teaching us English." I laughed nervously. If you know my flat Midwestern accent, you know the irony here. I am hardly an Oxford professor. But later, as I wandered the cobblestone streets beneath the shadow of the Duomo, the humor faded into a powe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sweden Called . . . They Said No.

Have you ever wondered about  the Nobel Prize? Let's look at Where Genius Meets “Wait—Where’s My Medal?” Every October, the Nobel Prizes are announced, and humanity pauses to celebrate the "greatest benefit to mankind." And every year, like clockwork, a specific type of person appears online to complain—at length—that they were robbed. (Well, maybe this year more than most.) The Origin: A Legacy of Guilt The prize exists because Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor, had a crisis of conscience. Nobel held 355 patents, but he was most famous for inventing dynamite. When a French newspaper mistakenly published his obituary, calling him the " Merchant of Death, " he decided to buy a better legacy. In his 1895 will, he left the bulk of his massive fortune to establish five prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace). Because he was Swedish, he entrusted the selection to Swedish institutions, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The only outlier...
1 comment
Read more

On the Fly–Taking Flight

In this special 500th episode,  On the Fly  is moving to a new home. Here’s why—and what’s staying the same. For a very long time (since April 2012),  On the Fly  has lived on  Blogger . Blogger has been a reliable host—dependable, quiet, and never complaining when I arrived late with another half-baked idea, a guitar riff, or a story that needed a little air. It faithfully archived my thoughts, my music, and more than a decade of curiosity. But the internet has changed. It’s louder now. Flashier. More insistent. Every thought is nudged to perform. Every sentence wants to be optimized, monetized, or interrupted by something that really wants your attention right this second. I’ve been craving the opposite. So today, On the Fly is moving to Substack . If you’ve been with me for a while, you know my quiet obsession: the A rt of Seeing . I’m interested in the moments we rush past—the Aversion Trap, the discipline hidden inside a guitarist’s daily practice, t...
Post a Comment
Read more