Being of Scot-Irish descent I grew up in a home where St. Patrick’s Day was a major holiday. As I came into my Jewishness I gave up the major Christian holidays right away and with little or no thought. Christmas and Easter were easy to give up as I had waned in my observance of them years before and had got them out of my system so to speak. The two holidays that caused the most problems for me were St. Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.
From early in my dating career I tried explaining to potential significant others that as a Jew I could not in good faith celebrate a day that commemorated a Christian saint. Most were fine with this idea, but a few came to the first February 14th I didn’t buy anything and the problems would arise. No chocolate, no jewelry, nothing. We would go through the usual rounds about St. Valentine’s Day being a secular holiday and it being “Valentine’s Day” instead of “St. Valentine’s Day," but I wasn’t going for it. I had heard the same arguments for Christmas and to some extent Easter early on in my Judaism and I applied the same reasoning to not celebrating those dates. As a rule I do not commemorate Christian holidays for any reason, no matter how secular the day has become. No Christmas, no Easter, no Halloween, and no Valentine, period.
Then, in one of those rare convergences of the Hebrew calendar and the Civil calendar, more rare than Hanukkah and Christmas aligning, more rare than Pesach on Easter, in 2003 St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) was the same day as Taanit Ester (the Fast of Esther) and Purim started at Sunset! My two cultures were merging into one festive alcohol laden event. Needless to say my date was upset when she found that I had even noticed that the two days coincided (and would not again do so until 2049). Years of being depraved of chocolate and precious gems in February turned this lovely woman into a Banshee. How dare I even think of drinking a drop that night?
“What” she asked me, “is the difference between the two? You won’t celebrate Valentine’s because of its tenuous Christian connection, so what is the difference?”
I had but one answer,
“Beer”
From early in my dating career I tried explaining to potential significant others that as a Jew I could not in good faith celebrate a day that commemorated a Christian saint. Most were fine with this idea, but a few came to the first February 14th I didn’t buy anything and the problems would arise. No chocolate, no jewelry, nothing. We would go through the usual rounds about St. Valentine’s Day being a secular holiday and it being “Valentine’s Day” instead of “St. Valentine’s Day," but I wasn’t going for it. I had heard the same arguments for Christmas and to some extent Easter early on in my Judaism and I applied the same reasoning to not celebrating those dates. As a rule I do not commemorate Christian holidays for any reason, no matter how secular the day has become. No Christmas, no Easter, no Halloween, and no Valentine, period.
Then, in one of those rare convergences of the Hebrew calendar and the Civil calendar, more rare than Hanukkah and Christmas aligning, more rare than Pesach on Easter, in 2003 St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) was the same day as Taanit Ester (the Fast of Esther) and Purim started at Sunset! My two cultures were merging into one festive alcohol laden event. Needless to say my date was upset when she found that I had even noticed that the two days coincided (and would not again do so until 2049). Years of being depraved of chocolate and precious gems in February turned this lovely woman into a Banshee. How dare I even think of drinking a drop that night?
“What” she asked me, “is the difference between the two? You won’t celebrate Valentine’s because of its tenuous Christian connection, so what is the difference?”
I had but one answer,
“Beer”
No comments:
Post a Comment