[etni] New year's Eve....
- From: Judi Granit <judiavi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ETNI <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:17:10 +0200
Some thoughts on the subject.......
Seems to me that this NYE debate is a bit of a religious versus secular thing.
Seems to me that a lot of the Israeli youth are just looking for a "siba
lemisiba" - and our Jewish holidays do not really give them this secular "wild
excuse for a good time". Christmas and the New Year long, long ago ceased to
be "religious" holidays for most of the secular populations in the west. They
are just excuses for people to let their hair down and celebrate.
Our Jewish holidays obviously do not fill this void for our kids because even
when celebrated "secularly" they seem to be based on family gatherings, picnics
and of course, food! They are just not about going out and having a good wild
time with friends. It's interesting why Purim does not fill this void -
logically it should, but for some reason it isn't the same. So why is that?
Perhaps its connected to WINTER and the early darkness, it just seems to be a
season when everyone needs cheering up and making merry. (In fact, isn't a lot
of the secular christmas tradition based on some earlier midwinter fest
tradition?) Celebrating NY'sE seems to be more about raising moral,
friendship, getting a little drunk, letting your hair down and having fun, and
partying rather than literally signifying anything meaningful about the new
year etc. After all, as that article that somebody posted proves, when we
start the new year is arbitrary really.
Anyhow, if our youth insist on going out to celebrate and don't turn up for
school on time on January 1st, does it really matter whether it is "declared"
an official holiday or not? In my religious school, I don't believe any of the
students celebrated or arrived at school later than normal however, at my
daughter's secular school nobody turned up for the first lesson in the morning
and a lot of the kids just didn't come in. They are voting with their feet,
whether we like/approve of it or not.
My 2 cents....
Judi G.
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