I'd be interested to know the significance of Hanukah to all here who might be willing to discuss it.
I mean, I know it's an important holiday and period of the year for those of the Jewish faith, but I'm interested in how significant it is to you personally, and how much you practice your faith.
In my Christian faith, there are lots of Easter-and-Christmas-only believers/church-goers, and there are others who try to really live the faith, and those who are believers but their active participation and observation of tenets waxes and wanes.
How deeply religious/spiritual do you tend to be? How do you try to incorporate your faith and beliefs into your lives, and how important is it to you to do so? Or, are you more casual observers of the faith, but this is tradition? Have your levels of participation changed over the years, or for particular reasons?
Our family's longest-dating family friends are Jewish, but they don't actively practice much, and I've been to one Passover Seder celebration in my life -- invited, along with a few others on our college newspaper staff way back when by a friend who was the managing editor of the paper.
I found the experience interesting, enlightening, and also, more fun than I'd anticipated it would be. I even wound up writing about it for the local paper at which I worked my first internship.
But I've had little other formal exposure to the Jewish faith beyond that and what knowledge and understanding I gained from a World Religions class, also taken in college.
My faith is a very real, important part of my own life, and I'd be interested to hear about your feelings and experiences regarding your own.
