Editorial | Reasons for the season
Hanukkah opened the holiday season this year with the celebration of Christmas coming next week.
The eight days of Hanukkah began at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 14, and continue through Monday, Dec. 22.
Christmas, of course, is Dec. 25.
The holidays have different meanings and they are celebrated with different traditions but they have a common core: Both mark miracles of faith.
For Jews, Hanukkah marks the liberation of Jerusalem after a rebellion led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire, the rededication of the holy temple and a single day’s supply of pure oil that nonetheless burned for eight days and eight nights, a virtual Festival of Lights.
For Christians, Christmas celebrates the birth of the Savior, both supreme gift and supreme sacrifice, to provide a path to redemption and reconciliation with God. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus.
For Jews and Christians alike, these are holidays — holy days — that grew from belief and affirmation of promises made and promises kept.
We usually include traditional verse related to these miracles here.
This year however, like far too many through the ages, these often concurring religious holidays have been touched with trials:
New waves of antisemitism, including the targeted violence at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. Fifteen were killed in the mass shooting including a 10-year-old child and a Holocaust survivor.
The precepts of Christianity, meanwhile, are under daily attack.
So instead this year we will pause to hail the believers, those who reaffirm their faith and concentrate on the messages and promises that make this a holiday season.
Happy Hanukkah.
Merry Christmas.
And yes, happy holiday.
May 2026 be all you want it to be.
Breeze editorial