Holidays in Israel

The holidays here in Israel are different.

First of all, the big U.S. holidays are not celebrated here at all. No New Year's Day (at least not on January 1), no MLK Day, no Presidents' Day, no Memorial Day (well, at least not the American one), no 4th of July, no Labor Day, no Thanksgiving, and no Christmas (well, at least VERY, VERY little). This is no surprise, really.

However, even the Jewish holidays here are different. Yes, they're the same holidays on the same days (except for no 2nd-day holidays other than Rosh HaShana). But the "feel" of virtually ALL of them is quite different. We experienced a good sample of that today.

We drove down to Rosh Pinna for the Saturday morning children's movie this morning. It happens about one or two Saturdays a month. The movie today was Tangle, a Disney re-telling of the story of Rapunzel (which was, by the way, was shown in English with Hebrew subtitles and was excellent!). As we were taking our seats, two little boys (maybe 5 or 6 years old or so) came in a couple of rows ahead of us, one of them distinctly singing:

אחת-אשרי אני יודע akhat-esrei ani yodeia ("eleven I know")

As all Jews around the world know, this is a tiny snippet from a popular song from the Pesach (Passover) seder. But, remember, this was SHABBAT morning, at a movie. These kids are DEFINITELY NOT religious! Besides that, Pesach is still a whole MONTH away!

After the movie, we went to eat at Greg Café in Rosh Pinna. Again, Shabbat, no religious people, not even a kosher restaurant (because, if it were, it couldn't be open at all on Shabbat). Yet ALL of the waiters and waitresses were in costume for Purim (which is actually TOMORROW)! Here's a pictures of two them:

In fact, Purim is a really BIG holiday here, even though it's mostly for the kids. We begin seeing people in costumes as much as a week or more BEFORE Purim. Our local supermarket has been selling hamentaschen (or אוזני המן oznei haman "Haman's Ears") since about Hannukah!

Of course, there are many other differences, too, but I'll save writing about them for some other time.