{"id":7785,"date":"2002-11-17T19:12:06","date_gmt":"2002-11-17T23:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wtb.org\/?p=7785"},"modified":"2018-12-27T17:21:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T21:21:10","slug":"ramadan-hanukkah-and-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/?p=7785","title":{"rendered":"Ramadan, Hanukkah and Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ramadan\n(Islam)\u2014Magda Bayoumi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magda explained that the term Ramadan<\/em> is the name of a month in the Arabic calendar. Ramadan is one of the most special months for Muslims because it is the month that the Qur’an came to Muhammad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam.\nThe other pillars are a belief in one God, with Muhammad as the last prophet of\nGod; prayer five times daily; charitable giving; and the hajj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims fast the whole month from dawn to sunset. After\nsunset, they break fast with dates and then eat a meal. Magda showed small\nlanterns that children light after they break the fast; some of the lanterns\nplay a tune or a call to prayer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magda likened the observance of Ramadan to taking a refresher course in school: it is a time for Muslims to refresh themselves on their beliefs and activities, to check that they are doing the good deeds they want to do. During Ramadan, Muslims read through the whole Qur\u0384an individually and hear it read at the masjid (mosque). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramadan ends with a celebration on Eid al Fitr (December 6\nthis year). This is a special time of family celebration and gift giving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanukkah\n(Judaism)\u2014Phyllis Berman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phyllis discussed Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which\noccurs in November or December. For her, Hanukkah comes with a quality of\nmystery. It is a celebration of freedom and signifies the importance of the\ntemple in Jewish life. Hanukkah commemorates an event in Judea thousands of\nyears ago when the Maccabees rededicated and cleansed the temple. They found\nonly one tiny jug of oil, but in a miraculous occurrence the oil burned for\neight days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phyllis said that Jews today celebrate this miracle for eight\ndays, lighting candles on the menorah each night. Children often play with\nspinning tops, called dreidels. A common food is potato pancakes. Gifts are\nexchanged. It is a time of great merriment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas (Christianity)\u2014Nancy Riffer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy discussed her traditions in observing Christmas, the\nbirth of Jesus Christ. She grew up Methodist and is now a Quaker. She learned as\na child that Christmas was a time of watching and expectation. Her mother told\nher to watch for something unexpected; it might be a group caroling at the door\nor a surprise Advent calendar coming in the mail. Something happened every\nyear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy demonstrated one of her favorite presents received as a\nchild: stilts made with large cans and string! She shared the simple ways her\nfamily celebrated Christmas: making a manger scene out of plain materials,\nhand-making ornaments for the tree, taking a family shopping trip to buy\nclothes and a toy for a needy child, making a gingerbread house with the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy outlined several ways that she and others have tried to\nobserve a less commercial Christmas. \u201cBuy Nothing Day\u201d is the day after\nThanksgiving when people do not<\/em> go shopping!\nNancy gives alternative gifts, donating presents to charity in honor of people\nrather than buying those people presents of their own. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian and Jewish women described their December holiday traditions, and a Muslim talked about Ramadan, which ends with the celebration of Eid al Fitr in December this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,42,16,17],"class_list":["post-7785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-christianity","tag-holy-days","tag-islam","tag-judaism",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8540,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7785\/revisions\/8540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}