AND ANOTHER THING!!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Regarding the "Holiday Concert" programming--
Do we really need to have the obligatory "Chanukah Medley?" Are we fooling anyone into thinking that this holiday is about anything but Christmas trees and Christmas Carols and Three Wise Men and a baby Jesus? In this instance, it is a concert of all Christmas tunes, and ONE four-minute piece about Chanukah.
I will be as up front as possible so as not to offend anyone: I'm not really sure if I believe in God or not. So I can hardly claim Christmas as "my" holiday. But I REALLY can't claim any of the Jewish holidays. So if any of you are Jewish, I would be interested in your take on this. Does the Chanukah medley make Jews feel included, or is it more of a trite insult? Do you feel more like this is a nice gesture on the part of the frenzied Christmastime masses to make you feel better about not getting any gifts on December 25th, or is this like a bad consolation prize that leaves you feeling pissed off? Is this just something we Christian-types do to make OURSELVES feel better? Has political correctness just gone a little too far?
I think if you're going to do a true "Holiday" concert (versus "Christmas" concert) then you need to include more than the Nutcracker Suite, Sleigh Ride, the Carol Singalong, and a Chanukah tune. Or maybe we could just do away with the idiom all together.
But how would I make my money, then?
Posted byL. at 10:03 AM
Labels: Christmas, programming
I don't think I can speak for all of Jewry, but I guess I'm pro-Chanukah medley -- especially if it means lots of people half-singing, half-mumbling in Hebrew. Chanukah is a sweet little holiday, with all the candles and stuff, but it's not really as important as Christmas is for Christians, and most of its songs are pretty dumb (e.g. the dreidel song). So there's no need to go nuts with the Jew-tunes, but if you want to toss one in, I'm not going to kvetch. There's plenty of schmaltz to go around!