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Entry tags:
The Hannukah Post
First, three videos:
1. A string of basic Hebrew Hannukah songs, the holiday song baseline, if you will. They include the semi-historical kind, and also the kind of kids songs that have the most amazingly inane lyrics.
A song about driving away the darkness, by various artists. This is a pretty short snippet, mostly because there are a lot of version of this song I don't like. For variety, try the drag king version. Even though this song taps thoroughly into the pagan roots of your good old-fashioned midwinter lights festival, for obvious reasons it's been attached to every political cause in the country, including and especially contradictory ones.
The obligatory "let's make Judaism sexy and modern" song, a mashup with a Black Eyed Peas song. I basically like it, but it also gives me that awkward squirmy feeling that you get when you're fourteen and your mom is casually chatting with your friends before you go to the movies.
Next,![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fannish5's question for the week: "5 characters that don't (or wouldn't if it existed in their universe) celebrate Christmas."
HOW DO I EVEN LIMIT THIS TO FIVE. HOW.
First of all, I'm watching Community right now, so let's just get that one off the table. Look, I love that this show has a cast full of people for whom Christianity is not the default, it's great. And I totally get why a character like Abed celebrates Christmas, there was a whole episode devoted to it, and yeah, it makes perfect sense for his character. I totally get that Christmas in the US is also a pop culture holiday, in addition to being a Christian holiday. Sure, it's a bit weird for me, I guess, but hey, I also went through a time when watching all the holiday specials of US TV shows made me want a holiday that was that sparkly, that present-driven, that special and uh, sparkly. Mainly I wanted the sparkles. I guess it's just hard for me to understand why so many people insist that Christmas is only or even mainly a pop culture holiday. I guess this show just brings up all sorts of feelings in me. Atheist Jew feelings.
Anywho!
I don't watch a lot of TV shows with Jewish characters, other than Community, and when I do, I frequently don't relate to them at all. It's just a thing. IDK. Then there are a lot of shows where the characters' faith isn't discussed at all. I can wonder whether Madoka and Sayaka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica celebrate Christmas, but I don't really know. Partly because I'm ignorant about Japan and partly because I'm very inexperienced with anime. Huh. Other shows (and books) are mostly things with aliens, or secondary world fantasy. These fall into a complicated pattern involving world-building, and it's just really hard to talk about religion in fantasy and SF without plumbing some pretty chaotic depths. Like, there are colossal squid and anglerfish down there, it's dangerous FFS.
I'm rambling. Maybe I should give a more straightforward answer.
For the record, I try to exclude obvious winter holiday analogues, like the recent MLP:FIM episode where the ponies put up a pageant for "Hearth's Warming Eve", a magical amalgamation of Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.
1. Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck is legit Troll Jewgish in my brain, even though it was probably just a one-off gag on Formspring that doesn't mean anything, and even though her ancestor Redglare was a disciple of Sexy Alien Jesus and wore his sexy handcuff symbol on a necklace and everything, just like a cross, yes the parallel is plenty obvious. Troll Jugaism in my mind doesn't celebrate Twelfth Perigee Eve (which is Troll Christmas) or any sort of Troll Hannukah, but they do celebrate a top-secret and highly lethal holiday called Bloodswap Day, which is exactly what it sounds like, and also basically Troll Purim. It has that same wonderful irreverence for authority, with a light drag element and some semi-public drunkenness. Getting caught celebrating it is ground for culling, hence the lethal element. It's hard being Troll Jewgish, and no one understands, or usually knows. Oops I got anusim all over your humorous alien adventure.
2. Gert Yorkes from Runaways doesn't celebrate Christmas because she comes from a secular liberal Jewish family, where traditions are made up on the spot. She celebrates Darwin Day and Pi Day and once Alex tried to convince her and the rest to celebrate Towel Day, but it didn't take. Chase probably celebrates a Hannukah/Christmas amalgam, but Xavin didn't take to any of the local holidays because where sie comes from, religion is a hilarious joke.
3. Zimmy from Gunnerkrigg Court Two or three times a year she suddenly wonders why they run into even fewer people than usual, and Gamma sort of nods and mentions something about everyone going on holiday with their parents because it's Christmas or Easter or summer. Then by the next time the Court empties out, she forgets all about it and asks again. Not that she terribly wants to know, usually she tries her hardest to avoid everyone except Annie, anyway. Everyone being gone just makes it easier, for a couple of weeks.
4. No one in Lost Girl celebrates Christmas because they have their own Fae holidays, except for angsty teens who are rebelling against their parents by slumming at human parties and thinking they're super-cool and oh so dangerous for it. Years later they look back and roll their eyes so hard. SO HARD.
5. Most of my original characters don't celebrate Christmas. Most of my OCs don't have a lot to do with religion, with the exception of that one original novel that I'm never going to finish, which revolved around the relationship between a school-teacher and her mom, who was the lady pope of their religion. The whole plot was supposed to unfold as the lead-up to a holiday, where the heroine had to appear publicly with her mother, and the stress of the upcomign holiday unraveled all sorts of awkward hidden secrets in the mother-daughter relationship. But I never managed to come up with any spiritual concepts to shape their religion around, beyond "everyone has a fate". Basically my religious-type worldbuilding skills are an epic failure.
1. A string of basic Hebrew Hannukah songs, the holiday song baseline, if you will. They include the semi-historical kind, and also the kind of kids songs that have the most amazingly inane lyrics.
A song about driving away the darkness, by various artists. This is a pretty short snippet, mostly because there are a lot of version of this song I don't like. For variety, try the drag king version. Even though this song taps thoroughly into the pagan roots of your good old-fashioned midwinter lights festival, for obvious reasons it's been attached to every political cause in the country, including and especially contradictory ones.
The obligatory "let's make Judaism sexy and modern" song, a mashup with a Black Eyed Peas song. I basically like it, but it also gives me that awkward squirmy feeling that you get when you're fourteen and your mom is casually chatting with your friends before you go to the movies.
Next,
fannish5's question for the week: "5 characters that don't (or wouldn't if it existed in their universe) celebrate Christmas."HOW DO I EVEN LIMIT THIS TO FIVE. HOW.
First of all, I'm watching Community right now, so let's just get that one off the table. Look, I love that this show has a cast full of people for whom Christianity is not the default, it's great. And I totally get why a character like Abed celebrates Christmas, there was a whole episode devoted to it, and yeah, it makes perfect sense for his character. I totally get that Christmas in the US is also a pop culture holiday, in addition to being a Christian holiday. Sure, it's a bit weird for me, I guess, but hey, I also went through a time when watching all the holiday specials of US TV shows made me want a holiday that was that sparkly, that present-driven, that special and uh, sparkly. Mainly I wanted the sparkles. I guess it's just hard for me to understand why so many people insist that Christmas is only or even mainly a pop culture holiday. I guess this show just brings up all sorts of feelings in me. Atheist Jew feelings.
Anywho!
I don't watch a lot of TV shows with Jewish characters, other than Community, and when I do, I frequently don't relate to them at all. It's just a thing. IDK. Then there are a lot of shows where the characters' faith isn't discussed at all. I can wonder whether Madoka and Sayaka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica celebrate Christmas, but I don't really know. Partly because I'm ignorant about Japan and partly because I'm very inexperienced with anime. Huh. Other shows (and books) are mostly things with aliens, or secondary world fantasy. These fall into a complicated pattern involving world-building, and it's just really hard to talk about religion in fantasy and SF without plumbing some pretty chaotic depths. Like, there are colossal squid and anglerfish down there, it's dangerous FFS.
I'm rambling. Maybe I should give a more straightforward answer.
For the record, I try to exclude obvious winter holiday analogues, like the recent MLP:FIM episode where the ponies put up a pageant for "Hearth's Warming Eve", a magical amalgamation of Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.
1. Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck is legit Troll Jewgish in my brain, even though it was probably just a one-off gag on Formspring that doesn't mean anything, and even though her ancestor Redglare was a disciple of Sexy Alien Jesus and wore his sexy handcuff symbol on a necklace and everything, just like a cross, yes the parallel is plenty obvious. Troll Jugaism in my mind doesn't celebrate Twelfth Perigee Eve (which is Troll Christmas) or any sort of Troll Hannukah, but they do celebrate a top-secret and highly lethal holiday called Bloodswap Day, which is exactly what it sounds like, and also basically Troll Purim. It has that same wonderful irreverence for authority, with a light drag element and some semi-public drunkenness. Getting caught celebrating it is ground for culling, hence the lethal element. It's hard being Troll Jewgish, and no one understands, or usually knows. Oops I got anusim all over your humorous alien adventure.
2. Gert Yorkes from Runaways doesn't celebrate Christmas because she comes from a secular liberal Jewish family, where traditions are made up on the spot. She celebrates Darwin Day and Pi Day and once Alex tried to convince her and the rest to celebrate Towel Day, but it didn't take. Chase probably celebrates a Hannukah/Christmas amalgam, but Xavin didn't take to any of the local holidays because where sie comes from, religion is a hilarious joke.
3. Zimmy from Gunnerkrigg Court Two or three times a year she suddenly wonders why they run into even fewer people than usual, and Gamma sort of nods and mentions something about everyone going on holiday with their parents because it's Christmas or Easter or summer. Then by the next time the Court empties out, she forgets all about it and asks again. Not that she terribly wants to know, usually she tries her hardest to avoid everyone except Annie, anyway. Everyone being gone just makes it easier, for a couple of weeks.
4. No one in Lost Girl celebrates Christmas because they have their own Fae holidays, except for angsty teens who are rebelling against their parents by slumming at human parties and thinking they're super-cool and oh so dangerous for it. Years later they look back and roll their eyes so hard. SO HARD.
5. Most of my original characters don't celebrate Christmas. Most of my OCs don't have a lot to do with religion, with the exception of that one original novel that I'm never going to finish, which revolved around the relationship between a school-teacher and her mom, who was the lady pope of their religion. The whole plot was supposed to unfold as the lead-up to a holiday, where the heroine had to appear publicly with her mother, and the stress of the upcomign holiday unraveled all sorts of awkward hidden secrets in the mother-daughter relationship. But I never managed to come up with any spiritual concepts to shape their religion around, beyond "everyone has a fate". Basically my religious-type worldbuilding skills are an epic failure.