Another bit of perspective: From where I sit, Hanuka is a tiny holiday, a pleasant blip on the calendar, not a big honking deal like Christmas is on the Christian calendar. So I rather wish it weren't aggrandized just because it's at the same time of year.
Rosh Hashana = New Year, and Yom Kippur = Day of Atonement. Together, they're the "high holy days," and if people are going to services once or twice a year, it's then.
There are three major festivals, which are Passover (big, but more with at home observances, ie, seders for the 1st 2 days of 8), Shavuot (2 days), and Sukkot (9 days, right after Yom Kippur, pretty much).
All of the ones above (a) are biblical, (b) include many work prohibitions (like the Sabbath), and (c) tend to be times that families gather together and/or have strong family traditions/customs.
Then there's the smaller things, which don't have any of the same kind of work prohibitions, and aren't biblical, etc. They include Hanuka, Purim, a new year for the trees, celebrations of the new (lunar) month, and a few others.
Plus some fast days, which are either whole day (25 hours w/o food or water), or just daylight hours (varies by season in duration).
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From where I sit, Hanuka is a tiny holiday, a pleasant blip on the calendar, not a big honking deal like Christmas is on the Christian calendar. So I rather wish it weren't aggrandized just because it's at the same time of year.
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There are three major festivals, which are Passover (big, but more with at home observances, ie, seders for the 1st 2 days of 8), Shavuot (2 days), and Sukkot (9 days, right after Yom Kippur, pretty much).
All of the ones above (a) are biblical, (b) include many work prohibitions (like the Sabbath), and (c) tend to be times that families gather together and/or have strong family traditions/customs.
Then there's the smaller things, which don't have any of the same kind of work prohibitions, and aren't biblical, etc. They include Hanuka, Purim, a new year for the trees, celebrations of the new (lunar) month, and a few others.
Plus some fast days, which are either whole day (25 hours w/o food or water), or just daylight hours (varies by season in duration).
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