A Very Heathen Hanukkah

You GUYS. I gotta say I am touched.

I recently found out (just last night at a Lore Chat with the New York City Heathens group) that this blog has been getting outside attention due to an older (in retrospect rather word-vomity) blog post on this very blog. Throw. Back. In fact, some of my irl friends within the Troth mentioned having read it without realising I was the one who wrote it, which is... certainly interesting. (Whoever shared me with the Troth, thank you and hello from a fellow Lokean and Troth member.)

Anyway, did you know that I also consider myself Jewish? And that Hanukkah ended recently?

By night 8 the menorah was significantly messier with wax drippings, so have a photo from night 1

"But wait," say those of you who know little to nothing about Judaism and the fact that Jewish Atheism is actually a very common thing, "that makes no sense. How can you be Lokean and also celebrate a Jewish holiday?"

Fair warning, those of you who are very attached to the idea of the One True God who created everything? You're gonna wanna skip this post. If you choose to click through and comment in a way that is offensive to either Jews or Heathens, I will delete your comment and refuse to engage with you. You were warned.


First off, let me answer the most obvious question of, “Can I be a Jew and a Heathen?” right away. Yes, obviously. You can do whatever you want to get your spiritual rocks off, do you understand me? If we really wanna delve into it, the world’s major religions all hail from various primal pagan desires to find meaning in this crazy world. We are all still searching for that, so if something works for you, then that's fine by me. You wanna take off all your clothes and dance in a field under a full moon in honour of the Goddess? That's fine, make sure not to catch a cold. You wanna devote your life to Jesus Christ and spend every Sunday in Bible study? That's just fine too, I hear he was a cool dude. Live and let live.

Judaism is unique in that even a rabbi in a synagogue will often say things to the congregation such as "G-d, if you believe in him" or "G-d, or whatever spiritual concept you believe in". You can be Jewish and worship many gods. You can be Jewish and worship zero gods. Even the Torah does not explicitly say there are no other gods - It just says that the Jewish G-d doesn't seem to like them very much!

As for the other way around - "can I be a Heathen and a Jew?" - well, why not? If you are polytheistic, what's one more god in the mix? I mean, since one of those gods doesn't play nice with others, I wouldn't recommend crossing the streams, but you do you. As for me, I keep up with the Jewish holidays in a more secular sense. (And yes, there are secular blessings for Hanukkah which do not mention G-d at all, which you can find here.)

One thing Heathenry in particular emphasizes is honouring one's ancestors, though. My ancestors were Jewish. They fought and died to remain Jewish, and I think that with antisemitism on the rise again, it is important to celebrate that. That's why I celebrate the Jewish holidays, even though I also identify as Heathen.

In reference to Hanukkah, allow me to quote this article from the famous Jewish Daily Forward:

"[A woman who identifies as 'Jewish-Pagan'] was never inspired by the Hanukkah menorah as a symbol of freedom. 'But then I experienced taking a single candle and over eight days letting it grow to eight candles, just as the sunlight grows after the winter solstice. The earth is teaching me, and connected to my tradition. And I have that experience in my life — of being in a dark place, and then, God willing, the world becomes light again.'"

I mean, Hanukkah is a winter solstice festival about bringing back the light. I'm not the first person to point this out. It's interesting that right now a post of mine that's getting so much attention is about the death of Baldr, because many theorise that stories of His death and rebirth were also a winter solstice story about the sun "dying" and later being reborn - especially since in much of Scandinavia, the sun literally disappears for most of winter.

That's... admittedly a lot longer of a rant than I meant it to be, but I think it's important for people to understand that religion can be molded to fit your life. You don't have to do something that doesn't ring true for you just because someone else told you that your god or gods said you had to. This is what works for me. It's not for everyone but it's what works for me.

So how does a Heathen Hanukkah work, exactly?

First, I'm not combining this with my Yule celebration. As I said earlier, I usually don't "cross the streams". I will be celebrating Yule later in the month.

During Hanukkah the candles on the menorah were lit. The appropriate candle-lighting blessings were said/sung. The story of the Maccabees was told to honour our Jewish ancestors, and the ancestors themselves were offered booze and latkes. (Because latkes are fucking delicious, okay? You can't go wrong with potatoes!) And then the gods were also offered booze. As my roommate said, "we did the Jewish stuff first so technically it's kosher."

I also toyed with the idea of spinning the dreidel in front of representatives for the gods and offering chocolate to whoever "won" but... I didn't want any divine sore losers in my kitchen, lmao.

Either way, the Festival of Lights is over, and I am very happy with how it went. Now the preparations for Yule begin - stay tuned to see how that one turns out!

-Nym