Well-Loved Chanukah and Christmas Songs was the theme of our annual social evening held at Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue (NPLS) on 15 December 2004, a celebration of seasonal songs followed by doughnuts, mince pies, fun-quiz, raffle wine, soft drinks, tea and coffee led by Rabbi Dr. Andrew Goldstein of NPLS and Mrs Keri Davis, Choir Mistress of Holy Trinity Church, Northwood.

Andrew Goldstein opened the meeting by saying that he and Keri were going to alternate with each other to introduce and explain Chanukah songs and Christmas carols. Although the preceding night was the last night of the eight night Chanukah festival, to “set the scene” he proposed that we should light the candles on the menorah tonight, joking that by lighting a candle on the ninth night, the Jewish members present were in effect getting an extra blessing!

Chanukah commemorates events that happened in Judea in the 2nd Century BCE, and the celebration has both a militaristic and a spiritual aspect. The Syrians invaded Judea and tried to force the Jews to adopt Greek ways. A popular rebellion, led by the Maccabees, eventually drove out the invaders. However, the Temple had been desecrated by the Syrians. Having regained the Temple the Maccabees and their followers cleaned it up. To celebrate its restoration they were going to light the eternal light, which was in the shape of a seven branch candlestick, but they could only find one jar and it contained insufficient oil. However they lit the seven branch candlestick and by a miracle the oil lasted for eight nights. That is why we now have an eight branch candelabra which is lit for eight nights – one candle on the first night, two on the second, three on the third, and so on.

The story is a little more complicated because although the Syrians were attempting to impose their culture by force, many of the wealthier Jews were actually attracted to Greek culture and philosophy, so the militaristic aspect of Chanukah was not only a battle between the Jews and the invaders, but also a battle within the Jewish people themselves, i.e. between those who wanted to keep the religion pure and those who wanted to adopt the Greek religion, in which case Judaism would have died away. What actually happened and how the events can be seen to tie in with the Feast of Tabernacles (Succot) is narrated in the Book of Maccabees.

Evidence for the miracle of the oil is somewhat tenuous; it is not mentioned in the Book of Maccabees, or by the Jewish historian Josephus. The first recorded mention of the oil comes some 300 years later in a rabbinical text when the Rabbis were debating the significance of Chanukah. There was a tussle between those who wanted to celebrate a military victory and those who wanted to celebrate a spiritual miracle, and this tussle was reflected in the songs Andrew introduced. Regarding the spiritual miracle the question to be asked is “Was the miracle about the oil, or the fact that the Jewish people survived?” The children are told the nice little story about the oil, but it is related to real events and real history, and it was rather an important victory because if the Jews had died out in the years following 185 BCE then there wouldn’t be Judaism, and there wouldn’t be Christianity!

Andrew distributed a song sheet and referred us to the first song which was headed A Psalm of David. A Song for the Dedication of the House. When Chanukah is celebrated in the synagogue this is the psalm that is sung because it is believed that it was written for the re-dedication of the Temple. Andrew read through the song and then invited people, Jews or Christians, to come up and light a candle - not as a religious rite, but to add a little symbolism. While this was being done we all joined in singing this first song. (On the theme of deliverance from oppression it is ironic that Handel’s masterpiece “Judas Maccabeus” is always thought of as a great oratorio expressing religious freedom, whereas it was written to celebrate the Duke of Cumberland wiping out the Scots at the battle of Calluden!).

Andrew then drew attention to another song on the song sheet. It was written in Germany in the 13th Century and Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Germany, Poland, Russia and modern Europe) incorporated it into their Prayer Book. The 5th verse, which is often the last verse, talks about “Greeks gathering against me…” and is the only verse that is relevant to Chanukah. However there is in fact a 6th verse, but it is often suppressed as it is considered by many to be a bit too bloodthirsty, and its theme is vengeance. So, regarding the previously mentioned tension between celebrating the military victory and the spiritual victory, this song recalls the military victory. Andrew sang it in Hebrew and this was followed by all of us singing a bowdlerised English version.

Keri Davis then gave us an introduction to the origin of carols. These days they are known primarily as songs which are sung at Christmas, but originally the carol was a dance. They were “ring” or “round” dances to lively music with a refrain, and performed at festivals throughout the year. St Francis of Assisi traditionally created the first crèche, or life-size nativity scene in 1223, where some of the first carols were performed – a custom which soon spread through Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England in the 14th Century; largely with the help of wandering minstrels and troubadours. Although most of the carols related to the Virgin Mary, Shepherds, Magi and Jesus’ birth, some were secular. Songs appeared about nature and pagan customs, including feasts and riotous drinking parties. So some of these songs have their roots in the pagan festivals celebrating mid-winter, and the birth of the sun, and adopting from this source we have retained references to Holly and Ivy. Both are evergreen and came to represent everlasting life and the coming of Spring. Christianity adopted the symbolism as Christ, too, offers everlasting life. Keri then led us in singing the carol The Holly and the Ivy, pointing out that the first verse and chorus are all about nature, and the other verses relate to the birth of Jesus.

Andrew then took the platform and again referred to the tension between those who wanted to use Chanukah to celebrate a military victory and those who wanted to celebrate the miracle of the oil. The Rabbis had suffered greatly with the wars that happened in the 70s CE, the destruction of the Temple in 135 CE, and problems brought by the Romans, and therefore they became very pacifist. So the emphasis shifted away from the military victory in favour of the spiritual – the story of the oil being a miracle wrought by God.

Throughout history Chanukah was a minor festival which largely took place in the home. It involved lighting the candles, playing with a little top, and not much else. However Chanukah becomes a big deal in the last century and increases year by year. This is because Christmas has been commercialised. As a result Jewish parents started giving their children gifts not just on the first night, but each night there would be a present, and Chanukah decorations started to appear in shop windows. So the festival has become more and more prominent, providing Jewish children with something that has resonances with their Christian friends' trees, carols and presents etc.

There was, however, a dearth of Chanukah songs, but things began to change from the 1920s onwards and a few songs came to be written in Palestine. As the Jewish community developed and dreamed of having the land for themselves they began to write songs. Many of the earlier settlers were not religious, they were secular Jews, and so the part of the story they wanted to stress was not the story of the light, but the story of the military victory. Andrew then referred us to one of these songs on our song sheets. He sung it in Hebrew and then in English. It calls on the people to be one again, like the Maccabees of old, and fight for their freedom and their land.

Keri then took over from Andrew. As she had mentioned previously, Carol singing was not limited to Christmas. New Year, Easter, Saint's Days, and planting and harvesting times were among the holidays that generated their own carols. Some became generalised and could be sung year round. Some of the surviving carols of today, such as The Boar’s Head, have sprung from the Middle Ages, and it was during this period that the practice of singing carols in the street became firmly established. The Boar’s Head is the carol sung every Christmas at Queen’s College, Oxford. No original music setting survives, and the tune to which it is now sung probably derives from the 18th Century. In 1901 the refrain was rewritten to produce the carol we know today.

Boar’s Head feasts were particularly popular at Christmas. Queen’s College adopted both feast and carol. The Boar’s Head is carried in on a silver charger surrounded by sprigs of rosemary and bay, and magnificently crowned. Preceding it are the singers who halt as each verse is sung, then continue to process on the refrain. Keri then referred us to the words printed on our carol sheets and we sung the carol.

Andrew then drew attention to some words on our Chanukah song sheets which are indicative of the thoughts of the Rabbis in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries. A reading had to be chosen to be read in the Synagogue on the Sabbath which falls within the eight days of Chanukah, and they deliberately chose a rather obscure passage from the book of Zechariah which is appropriate in one way because it refers to 2 golden candlesticks. But they chose it for this one line – Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit, says the Lord. They were stamping their feeling on the Festival that what we are celebrating is actually the preservation of God’s Spirit, i.e. God saving us through the Holy Spirit and not through military might. A more modern song on our song sheets came from America some 20 or 30 years ago and was written as a summer camp song for Jewish children. Andrew and his wife Sharon sung the song for us, but Andrew pointed out that it would normally be accompanied by loads of children screaming their heads off!

Up to this point in the evening we had sung in Latin, Hebrew and English. Andrew joked that we needed to add some Yiddish, so that we could really feel, as Christians and Jews, that we had joined in all the languages together. The last song on the sheet was printed in Yiddish and English. It talks about the Festival as it is – We light the menorah, let’s have a party, we’ll dance the hora, play with spinning tops …and so on. The song itself teaches us a little more about how Chanukah is celebrated. A modern day addition to the celebration is the provision of doughnuts which are cooked in oil to recall the oil which lasted for eight nights. We then sung the song in English and followed with Yiddish.

Keri explained that the collecting of carols gathered pace in the early 20th Century. A popular carol may have more than one tune associated with it, and a familiar tune may be associated with different words. This is especially true when comparing US and British carols; a British version being virtually unknown in the US, and vice versa. “Away in a manger” is one such carol. It is believed that the original hymn, untraced because it was probably unpublished, derived from one of the children’s dramatic presentations mounted in 1883 by American Lutherans to mark the anniversary of the birth of their founder, and that it was originally recited as a poem, and not sung. Keri then sang the first two verses to an American tune which appeared in 1887, remarking that the third verse was not added until 1892. She then sang all three verses to the tune we are familiar with in England, and this was followed by us all singing the well-known English version.

Andrew brought the musical presentations to a close by saying that the raison d’être of the evening was a social to mark Chanukah and Christmas. We had all enjoyed the lovely “sing-along”, and to end he led us in a delightful little children’s song I have a little dreidle. We then partook of the attractively laid out spread of food and drink. A fun quiz and raffle which rounded off a very enjoyable evening.

- Bernard Tiley