My
first Hanukkah
By Alisha Gomez
On-line Forty-Niner
Growing
up, I have always celebrated the traditional
holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
As a Mexican-American, I myself know what
it is like to have traditional foods, prayers
and activities around the holidays. But
celebrating another culture’s traditional
holiday, like Hanukkah, was something I
had never considered.
That is until I met my fiancé four
and half years ago and he flew me home this
Thanksgiving where we celebrated Hanukkah
— my first time to partake in the holiday.
I admit, I was a bit nervous about celebrating
a holiday I know nothing about. But I began
the holiday by making Challah with his mom,
who has been making this delicacy for quite
some time now. Challah is a traditional
Jewish bread used for many holidays and
often found to be a symbolic item at a wedding
ceremony. We kicked off the holiday with
my Challah and a big dinner, and no it was
not a kosher meal. His family does not always
have a traditional Jewish meal. After, with
full tummies and all, we lit the candle,
one candle in the middle, one candle on
the end, to mark the first day of Hanukkah.
Then they said a prayer in Hebrew and we
began exchanging gifts. Of course, I still
don’t know what they said in the prayer,
but whatever it meant, there was something
magical about that moment and it was the
beginning of my entrance into a whole other
culture.
In August 2003, we will be married and as
we unite, we will share our cultures with
each other. Since I have really never dated
anyone outside my own faith, our relationship
has been interesting. At first, we didn’t
celebrate Passover and Hanukkah, but always
Christmas (my fiancé had grown up
with both sides of the holidays, Christmas
and Hanukkah).
The first time I went back to Cleveland
(that’s where he is from), I was nervous.
Would his family accept me since I was Mexican?
Would this be some kind of forbidden relationship?
Perhaps such worries sound silly, but most
of most of his friends have always dated
Jewish girls and eventually married them.
For some of his friends, this was a must
from their families and I didn’t know what
to expect from his.
When my fiance’s parents married, his mother
converted to Judaism so they could be married
in a Jewish temple. Back then, this is the
way it had to be and although his mother
was not Jewish, she converted. This made
me a bit nervous because I wondered if I
was going to be required to the same.
Well, all went fine with the family and
yes, they love me. What’s the best part
is that we are now incorporating each other’s
traditions. For me, celebrating Hanukkah
was a different experience. It is important
that we remember and embrace the way cultures
unite and celebrate this time of year. So
as many of us go home for the holidays and
break in 2003, remember the people around
you, how special and unique they are.
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