Chanukah for Our Family

Chanukah has always been mostly a fun celebration in our home. Being married to a Catholic man, however, has changed some of our traditions. Which is okay. We chose this path, the path of learning about other religions, because we feel it will enrich our children and hopefully the generations to come.

Growing up, my family was pretty traditional but in a fun way. We lit the candles, said the correct prayers, told a Jewish joke or two and waited until the candles burned all the way down to the nubs and the flames went out. We still honor this tradition in my home, however, with cats in the house, in the past, we usually left the candles lit for fifteen minutes and then politely snubbed them out in case a cat or two wanted to jump up onto the table.

Telling jokes was my Grandma's tradition, (Chanukah Traditions: Seven days of Jokes, One Day of Serious Reflection,) and we love that part of it. Last year, however, we had to put one of our cats to sleep in the fall because he had a tumor, and this year, just this month, we had to put another cat to sleep because he stopped eating and drinking. Our cats were beloved to us, and last year, after Jake passed (he was 16), we could not be quite as informal and cheery on Chanukah. We did, however, pray for him and that was a wonderful, new part of our tradition.

This year, we plan on incorporating both the funny and the sad into our Chanukah celebration and prayers. For George, our other cat who recently passed, (he was 15), and Jake, we will say a prayer and talk about how much we loved them and cherished them and then we will tell a joke. Because there's nothing like a good Jewish joke when you are celebrating the festival of lights! And on that last day of Chanukah, as is always our tradition, we will focus on why we celebrate Chanukah, why we are lucky to be together on Chanukah and what the meaning of Chanukah is really about.