Not only is it Christmas time, but it's one of those years when the yuletide overlaps with the festival of lights. The kids love when this happens. It's all presents all the time. This year there are no presents, just promissory notes. They've seemed to have accepted that pretty well but the lack of a real menorah rankles.
"First of all I wouldn't be in this mess if Dad had brought the hanukiah and the candles, but he left them at home. Now that it is holiday time we have a dilemma. It was easy to find enough candles, so the trouble was with a replacement hanukiah. We found a perfectly nice silver platter for only 38 rupees (75 cents), but Dad wanted something more special which was annoying. We then started to look for the tin containers bindi powder is kept in. Finally, Dad got 9 cups with one taller than the others for the shamash."
Here are a couple of pictures:
We've mostly been lighting candles at restaurants so we don't have to sit around the hotel room waiting for the candles to burn out. The wonderful thing about India is that no one seems to mind what strange little ritual you get up to. It's all good. The bad thing about lighting candles in Southern India is that most of the restaurants are open air and the wind blows the candles out. Whenever the wind starts blowing we make lame jokes about needing a miracle to keep them lit.
What Nicholas left out of his story was a description of David searching through the bazar in Mysore. We must have stopped at every tin tinker's stall, shifting through all their merchandise and completely unable to explain what we wanted or needed. But, love our cup hanukiah. It's collapsible, utterly Indian, somewhat kosher and it only cost $1.75! It's everything I think is wonderful about Judaism. It doesn't require bricks and mortar, you can worship anywhere (and really observant Jews do worship anywhere and everywhere) as long as you know the prayers. You don't even really need a rabbi; although ideally it's nice to have other Jews for the minyan. You and your god, then your family, then your community: an ever-widening circle that shrinks or expands to fit the circumstances. It's not really Christmas for us not being with my family, but give us 44 candles, 9 cups and a pack of matches and it is Hanukah.
1 comment:
Hanukah in India will be a many told tale. I bet you use that menorah in NYC. Sarah had pasta in Agra for the special Christmas dinner, Ray was upset that they did not serve Indian food. Let's see what he wants in 2 weeks. (Probably more Indian). We are in the Hamptons where it is cold and gray. But there are good movies to see.
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