If Christmas is your primary holiday to celebrate, as a kid did you get what Hanukkah and Kwanza were about?

I did not get it, and Hanukkah I'd heard a little about on TV but until I was about 9 or 10 I never really knew what it was about, I just knew that other people celebrated it and we didn't, and I didn't know why. And my parents never told me what it was about, never explained what it was, so for that large gap of no forthcoming information, I kind of got it in my head that the other winter holidays were considered stupid since we didn't celebrate them. Definitely something I'd do differently if I had kids, but looking back it seems like if it didn't concern the stuff in our lives, then it wasn't discussed. I remember I was about 7 or 8 and asking my mother what Winter Solstice was since I'd heard about it on TV and her answer was a lot of things on TV were made up and that was the end of that.

Hanukkah was my holiday but I knew all about Christmans because it was emphasized so much in my school. Kwanza appeared after I was an adult.

I learned about Pagans who celebrated the Winter Solstice when I was a kid. I don't remember exactly how I came across it but I beleive it was from a book.

Minerva wrote:

Hanukkah was my holiday but I knew all about Christmans because it was emphasized so much in my school. Kwanza appeared after I was an adult.

I learned about Pagans who celebrated the Winter Solstice when I was a kid. I don't remember exactly how I came across it but I beleive it was from a book.

Even today that's how I still learn most stuff.

I really did not about all religions. I knew Muslim well as my best friend was Muslim.

But honestly, I was in my teens when I realized more about religions.

I went to school in North St. Louis County and it was just Catholic & Protestant Christians.

Of course I knew there were Jews, because when my dad got a deal on something it was because he "Jewed the other person down." We learned of other religions in Social Studies in high school at the time that I was becoming an Atheist. However, I don't recall seeing any of the boys in yamulkas nor any observance of Jewish holidays. And, what we take as Jewish names in most parts were actually just German names in my neighborhood.

Now South Florida (like NYC) you do become aware of other religions. Not as insular as St. Louis in the '50s.

Kwanza didn't exist when I was a kid. I knew that Hanukkah was a Jewish holiday and that's it. But looking back, I cannot remember a single Jewish person in my whole class growing up.

I knew about all of those holidays. Growing up in a multicultural society sorta helps that. We had both Hanukah and Christmas celebrations in school. Kwanza wasn't touched on as much, but I did become familiar with it with people who lived down the street that celebrated it. Of Christmas was the primary holiday in our household....just because it was the one my parents and grandparents grew up with.....but it wasn't considered "better" or "higher" than the others.

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However, I don't recall seeing any of the boys in yarmulkes nor any observance of Jewish holidays.

That isn't too surprising and probably true of most areas. Only the Orthodox wear yarmulkes every day so there could have been a Conservative or Reform Jewish kid in your class but you wouldn't have known it. In the 50's and 60's Jewish parents cautioned their kids to keep a low profile about their religion.

Hanukkah is really not a major holiday on the Jewish calendar. But it has become so because Christmas and Hanukkah falls around the same time.

And Jewish kids wanted presents too!

i went to catholic school that emphasized that jesus was a jew and that the christian faith is based on judaism. For that reason, they took us on a trip once to a jewish synagogue, had us celebrate passover once while learning about moses and the pharoah, and even taught us about several other jewish holidays.

Unfortunately, they did not do as good a job teaching us of other religions. And when questioning our own religion we were told we would burn in hell... or didnt get an answer lol For example, Joan of Arc was taught to us as a saint... yet when i read about her being arrested by the inquisition, the nun acted like the inquisition had nothing to do with the church. lol

wants2laugh wrote:

i went to catholic school that emphasized that jesus was a jew and that the christian faith is based on judaism. For that reason, they took us on a trip once to a jewish synagogue, had us celebrate passover once while learning about moses and the pharoah, and even taught us about several other jewish holidays.

Unfortunately, they did not do as good a job teaching us of other religions. And when questioning our own religion we were told we would burn in hell... or didnt get an answer lol For example, Joan of Arc was taught to us as a saint... yet when i read about her being arrested by the inquisition, the nun acted like the inquisition had nothing to do with the church. lol

Yeah I guess they overlooked that she was only recently posthumously added in the saint category.

I remember thinking Hanukkah was silly because you got only 8 presents. Being a spoiled only child who would be showered with gifts on Christmas, 8 seemed laughable to me. Kwanzaa I didn't even know about until I was in my teens and a white teacher (one of those "culturally sensitive" types) decided to say "Happy Kwanzaa" to me. I'm all like, "what?!"

Marc™ wrote:

I remember thinking Hanukkah was silly because you got only 8 presents. Being a spoiled only child who would be showered with gifts on Christmas, 8 seemed laughable to me. Kwanzaa I didn't even know about until I was in my teens and a white teacher (one of those "culturally sensitive" types) decided to say "Happy Kwanzaa" to me. I'm all like, "what?!"

I have no idea how many presents we got as a kid, it always felt like a lot but we wouldn't have laughed at 8 because that would still be a nice haul, especially compared to when my mother was a kid and they only got ONE thing for Christmas every year and it usually sucked.

Marc™ wrote:

I remember thinking Hanukkah was silly because you got only 8 presents. Being a spoiled only child who would be showered with gifts on Christmas, 8 seemed laughable to me. Kwanzaa I didn't even know about until I was in my teens and a white teacher (one of those "culturally sensitive" types) decided to say "Happy Kwanzaa" to me. I'm all like, "what?!"

Actually, Hanukkah is not a gift giving holiday. Unless you count chocolate candy wrapped as gold coins to represent Hanukkah Gelt or maybe an orange or two. That's what my sisters and I got from our grandparents because that was their tradition.

My parents didn't give us kids presents but sometimes my sisters and I would exchange a few gifts. I believe that giving gifts for Christmas came from the three wise men giving gifts to the Christ child.

I believe that commercialism has expanded the Christmas gift giving and created the idea of giving gifts on Hanukkah. After all, the merchants don't want to leave anyone out.

I knew about Hanukkah, not so much Kwanza. We celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah at school. I can't remember if we did for Kwanza.