By Izzy Requa, Staff Writer

Lights fill the room. In one corner of our living room stands a tall Christmas tree decorated with colorful lights and shiny ornaments. In the other corner is a different kind of light — the warm glow of lit candles that are slowly dripping wax all over the Menorah and the table beneath it.

Both lights tell the story of an important part of two different religions, two religions that are intertwined in my life.

My mom’s side of the family is Christian, and my dad’s side is mostly Jewish. Though I consider myself more of a Christian, I have been able to grow up being taught about both religions.

In a lot of ways, Christmas and Hanukkah are very similar. For starters, they both celebrate a miracle; for Christmas it was the birth of Jesus, and for Hanukkah it was about a one-day supply of pure olive oil that lasted eight days until more oil could be found.

Both holidays are centered around lights. For Christmas, it’s the tradition of stringing up lights around a tree and pretty much anywhere else you can put them, or putting a star on top of the tree to symbolize the star of Bethlehem — the light that led the Wise Men to Jesus. Similarly, the Hanukkah Festival of Lights, where candles are lit in a menorah, celebrates when Judah Maccabee and other Jews drove out the Syrians from Jerusalem. 

Both holidays also involve gift giving, but not in a traditional sense. Giving gifts during Hanukkah has grown recently because Jewish parents didn’t want their kids to feel left out while everyone else was celebrating Christmas. But since my family celebrates both, we usually save the gift giving for Christmas, and spend Hanukkah just hanging out together. While Hanukkah was never meant to be the Jewish equivalent of Christmas, its popularity has grown because it is celebrated in December.

I enjoy both holidays, from decorating the Christmas tree and lighting the menorah to baking cookies for Santa and unwrapping Hanukkah gelts, or chocolate coins. Both holidays create a peaceful atmosphere — unless, of course, you’re frantically running around shopping for gifts.  

For me, it has been a great experience to be able to learn about two different religions. And it is nice to have two times the light in the dark month of December.

Sophomore Izzy Requa can be reached at [email protected].