A new mindset is required ahead of Hanukka, Christmas and New Year
By BENITA LEVINA salesman at Jerusalem’s Roladin bakery arranges Hanukka donuts(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
DECEMBER HAS always marked the start of the end-of-year slowdown. For as long as I can remember, we’ve called it “the silly season” in the news world. Abroad, schools wrap up their year, businesses wind down their workload and holiday plans are confirmed.It’s time to start taking your foot off the accelerator and focus on some much needed time out.December in Israel is a different story.While I haven’t yet heard any Christmas carols in the shops, people gathered outside Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity at the start of the month for the traditional lighting of a giant Christmas tree and fireworks. Thousands of Christian pilgrims and tourists flock to the Holy Land to mark the start of the festive season.But December 25 is not a public holiday here. More jarring is the thought that January 1 is just another normal work and school day. I have triple-checked! While many Anglos (English-speakers) apparently do have their own private New Year’s parties, and I’ve been assured that Tel Aviv may be quite festive on the night, the first of January, 2018, will be like any other start of any other month.At first, I wasn’t sure why this seemed so, well…wrong. It certainly wasn’t about missing out on a huge New Year’s Eve party.It was definitely about the psychological closure, marking the end of a year. The end of a chapter – reflection on how that chapter had been – and thoughts around the clean slate for a new year, a new chapter.I’m definitely not talking about New Year’s resolutions. (For me, any sudden decision to be healthier, cut down on caffeine or exercise more has a life span of around 10 days!) It’s more about having a clean slate from the first of January – a time to think about what one hopes to focus on long-term during the year ahead.It all makes perfect sense. The reason there is no official New Year’s Eve bash, no countdown and no day off on the first of January is because here the start of the year really is September. It comes at the end of a sweltering two-month holiday in June and July, and coincides with the start of the school year.But most significantly, the year starts whenever the country marks the festival of Rosh Hashana. The apple and honey for a sweet new year, the family time and the many meals mark the beginning of the Hebrew calendar year.The appropriate time to start the year with a clean slate here in Israel is obviously the Yom Kippur fast. One doesn’t need to be a religious scholar to understand the significance of the time of reflection – a time to look back on the previous year and a time to focus on being a better person in the year ahead.December holidays for new olim (immigrants) from South Africa are about to change dramatically – no beaching in Clifton or Plettenberg Bay. Instead, a winter break dotted with an array of calorie defying donuts, complete with toppings and a plastic injection-like filling of chocolate, icing or custard, all in the name of the festival of Hanukka. Camping is said to be a popular pastime during the eight-day school break – for those who are happy to brave what are expected to be much colder temperatures.And for those of us who are used to treating December as a time to mentally unwind ahead of the new calendar year, I suppose there’s nothing stopping me from keeping that personal ritual, while sitting at work on the first of January, with a donut left over from Hanukka during the coffee break.
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