Poised on the edge of the holiday season, with all the bustle, preparations, decorations, buying and traditions ahead of us, I like to pause and think about why I really like each year’s end.
I like how the holidays give us a reason to give “hi” and “what’s up” a break from their year-round greeting workload, and trot out “happy holidays,” “Happy Hanukkah” and “Merry Christmas.” What the heck, throw “Happy Kwanzaa” in the mix, too.
I like Christmas music. Call me cheesy, but I get that special December feeling when I hear poor John Lennnon sing, “So this is Christmas,” or hear Wham! rotate for the 10,000th time through the holiday playlist.
I also like the weather. Fall winds down in December and winter arrives with trees stripped clean of leaves and the air brisk and cold. I grew up in Wyoming and “it’s freezing outside” in Casper meant you had to shove the ice-entombed front door extra hard to open it.
Most of all, I like the lights. In fact, I love the lights. There is a house on Broad Street in Lynn just past Central Congregational Church that is non-descript for 11 months of the year and a masterpiece of Christmas kitsch during December. It blazes with colored lights and reindeer and sleighs decorate its roof and scamper around the yard.
There is something about multi-colored Christmas lights that summon up two of my favorite memories: Crawling under my grandmother’s piano on Christmas Eve to count all the gifts wrapped and ready for my siblings and cousins to help me unwrap, and caroling in the 6th grade, everyone laughing and singing even though there was two feet of snow on the ground.
I never gave much thought to Hanukkah, but the “festival of lights” and tradition of the menorah is even more poignant in a year when darkness seemed to spread across the world with COVID-19 bringing death to so many doorsteps.
Hanukkah is Dec. 10-18 this year. Hopefully, those eight nights overlap a global recognition that the cavalry has arrived and vaccines are going to slowly but surely vanquish the virus.
I didn’t need to dig deep into the Item’s library to find a poignant Hanukkah story written 19 years ago about the Kotler family of Lynn and their journey to the United States from the former Soviet Union.
“In that country at that time, practicing a religion was sort of a crime. Being Jewish was especially bad,” Lev Kotler recalled in 2001. He added: “The KGB was watching.”
After moving to the United States and joining Congregation Ahabat Sholom in Lynn, the Kotlers found the biggest challenge they faced practicing Hanukkah in their new country was coming up with a gift for their kids every one of the eight nights.
Lev Kotler posed an interesting question during his Item interview: “I think all people wonder why we are put on this planet.” That question seems to take on greater meaning in this dark year and, guided by our best natures, we can answer: “We were put here to follow the light and do our best by others.”
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].