deernet | text; un: Lothrat

Entry tags:

text; un: Lothrat

[ Ezra has debated asking this question on and off for days, but the thought hasn't left him, so here goes.]

Hey, is anyone here celebrating Hanukkah? If so, would you mind a really unorthodox guest (pun sort of intended?)

Five second educational spiel for everyone who might not know: This in an Earth origin holiday, in Jewish tradition, that stems from a pretty well documented historical event. The rededication of the Temple that was the center of worship for the Jewish people.

There's lighting of candles involved, but it's really not like Christmas at all. It's its own thing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A Winter Earth holiday that does not involve rotund bearded strangers breaking into your house to steal confections and leave gifts under the corpses of trees cruelly ended to serve as decorations and inside of undergarments festooned around the fireplace?

I am actually interested.

[... she's also taking her mind off of other things and mocking Christmas is an annual tradition for her.]

Yeah, none of that.

It's very tied to a specific people, religion, and history.

But any Jewish feast holiday the theme is pretty much: They didn't manage to kill us all. We're still here and alive. Let's eat.

Oh yes. I've heard of the Jewish people, though I don't know much about their culture. But it does sound very resilient by nature.

It's certainly a good reason for candles and feasts.

There wouldn't be a people distinct enough to called Jewish, without the resilience and the willingness to celebrate, I don't think.

Some people are defined by their capacities to endure almost anything that is thrown at them. I suppose this is a natural thing the longer that one does it. I take it then, are you among them?

I suppose I am. Maybe. I know I'm not unbreakable.

And I think I'd rather be defined by the doing more then enduring.

I was never one for enduring myself. I preferred to change the world I was in, and enduring was for when I had no choice. But, I respect endurance when I see it.

Oh, well, when you put that way

Sometimes changing the world is the only way to endure. Or everything will keep burning down around you.

My parents saw change coming that would hurt people and they fought back. With words, but that was enough for people in power to take them away.

That left me alone and too young to know how to do anything but try to survive.

I had to grow into the kind of person who could continue what they started.

Sometimes, we are forced to grow up too soon. I'm sorry. That said, you hit on something. Sometimes being proactive is the way you endure because you make the situation endurable in the first place. It's not far from how I tried to explain things in my world.

Some learned, others did not.

uh im not jewish but maybe i can help?

What did you have in mind?

I feel a little weird about celebrating by myself. I'm not originally from Earth. I just got handed a lifetime of memories like I grew up from Earth, in a reality altering spell.

The guy who cast the spell's Jewish, so like, I'm honored and grateful for the memories of celebrating holidays with a family. I mostly grew up an orphan and didn't have those before.

But can I really say all that stuff about Jewish and Japanese and American culture is...mine?

... ok so i read quest instead of guest and thought you needed me to get candles or something

but either way its like...

part of culture is bloodline thats true im not going to deny that. but other parts of culture are about celebrating the culture and what its done and what it represents. i dont want to get into like 'the true meaning of hannukah' because its not my holiday either and i cant speak on it like a jewish person can

it probably depends a lot on who you ask but for example if random white/european americans started celebrating obon itd be weird yeah but if thats their sincerely held belief and theyre not doing it for like 'ooh look at the foreign thing' i personally wouldnt have a problem with it. but thats me not everyones opinion.

if some people get mad about you celebrating a holiday that genuinely means something to you i dont see why thats anything but their problem not yours. if you wanna celebrate it because it makes you happy and it connects you to something larger i dont see why thats anyones business but your own.

tl;dr do it if you wanna and the haters can just leave

Oh! Well, I appreciate the thought, but candles I can get.

Thanks, man. That actually helps some.

It's not just that it's nice memories I got handed. The reasons for a lot of Jewish holidays, the purpose, the themes. They resonate for me.

i mean if they work for you they work for you

maybe im too laid back about it but like... who the hell is gonna judge you and also why? if its yourself then thats a problem you probably need to work on

otherwise its just like whatever

im curious did you get like a ton of american school education stuck in your head too? and if so from what era?

I did! And like, also grateful for that because

Ok, I could read my first language back home fine for day to day stuff, but I had NO formal/academic education past age seven. All self taught until my foster family took me in, and then it was still all hands on and practical, while hiding out or fighting space fascists.

I was a senior in high school, when we were in the spell reality, and it was supposed to be 2021.

good. fuck fascists.

huh... yeah i'm from america in 2022 so pretty similar. but uh.

[Slapping a private filter on this right now.]

[Private]

i was in america but i lived through world war ii. so i am definitely sympathetic to the whole need to keep traditional festivals alive.

also, you know. japanese in america at the time - also not a great time for my people. so i get it.

even if you arent like 'really jewish' according to some stupid standard i get the feelings

Edited 2022-12-15 15:11 (UTC)

Oh, you're Japanese!

[And either old, or long lived or - time travel, also an option. There are many options, really. Very few Sleepers seem to come from 'ordinary' lives.]

In my Earth memories, my mom's family was Japanese.

And also, in my original memories - my homeworld was ruled by, as I mentioned, a fascist empire. Fuck them very much. My homeworld wasn't oppressed for cultural reasons, just greed and cruelty, but I have special abilities, and the Empire hunted people with them, of any culture.

But then there's a specific culture, with a philosophy of using our gifts to serve justice and peace, that I was adopted into. The Jedi. They were the first people the Empire tried to wipe out. They stormed the main Temple and killed nearly everyone. Outlawed everything about the Jedi. Now it's the Emperor palace.

So. Parallels, I guess you could say. Jedi and Jewish doesn't really feel contradictory to *me*. Plenty of Jedi have practiced cultural or religious stuff from their species, or homeworld, or family aside from the Jedi.

oh yeah no im literally from japan originally we moved to america when i was a kid

ive heard of jedi before

[Amazing. Star Wars is real.]

yeah i mean ive seen plenty of people be tried to be wiped out or wars started and any number of things like that so i get the parallels thing

ive heard of weirder syncrtysim

synchritizim?

smooshing two things together

i dont practice any religion and personally have a problem with gods but if you dont mind that id be happy to come over

if i find some potatos maybe i can try to make latkes??? i think i have a vague idea on how that would work

[Another version of Earth where the Jedi are stories? Ezra just accepts that and moves on.]

Beings that you can actually see walking around calling themselves gods do tend to be shady.

There are definitely potatoes around. One of the easier vegetables to grow here.

Would you rather try this at the Sanctuary or whether I live?

probably where you are if that works for you

that way theres fewer people to accidentally blind if i use too much oil

(i wont use too much oil but that was a problem when i first started cooking)

I'd love to have you over. One of my housemates can be weird about strangers, tho.

[That is absolutely the most diplomatic way he can think of to express the many issues with sharing a house with Anakin Skywalker.]

Weird in what way? Like the "don't talk to me" way or the "get out of my house" way?

Depends on the day, honestly.

[He flips to private, because it's his policy not to shit talk Anakin on the public network.]

It's complicated. He's an unhappy guy and I don't approve of how he acts sometimes. But in a couple ways, he's family to me, even if he doesn't see me that way.

And I'm not willing to leave my other housemate, who acknowledged me as family without me ever asking - and was the brother who raised me in the Earth life, although he doesn't have those memories, only knows that I have them - alone to deal with that mess.

Honestly, trying to celebrate Hanukkah at home when Ben doesn't remember any of that would just make me sad anyway. He'd be supportive, I'm sure, because that's how he usually is in any life, but yeah.

Let's do it at Sanctuary, then. As long as they'll be okay with it? I don't really know people there.

Sansa's onboard for general celebration. As long as we don't mess up the free meal distribution, we should be good.

barring some unexpected explosions (you never know in this place) i think they should be fine

Then let's do this thing!

Uh. I forgot to ask your name. I'm Ezra.

ill meet you there

my names taro

Why do you light candles?

Let's see if I can explain this right.

The temple had been desecrated by foreigners. To be set up properly, traditionally, there were supposed to be lamps at the altar burning continuously with fresh, pure olive oil.

The story goes that there wasn't enough properly prepared oil on hand, when the temple was retaken, to keep the lamps lit for very long. Supposedly only enough a day. And yet the lamps miraculously stayed lit for another week until more oil could be pressed.

So there's a candle to light, one day at a time, for all eight days.

I see.

We light candles during our winter holiday as well, but they're for remembering people we've lost. A miracle seems like a much more uplifting thing to celebrate.

I've done candle lighting for remembrance of those lost too, as parts of both Japanese and Jedi culture.

Both have their place, I think.

It seems to be a common tradition for a lot of cultures.

Are there are other celebrations involved or just the candles?

Is it always in winter?

Sort of. I mean, the short answer is yes.

The Jewish calendar is a little different from the one they use here in Trench. So the months don't exactly line up and slide around relative to each other. It starts on the 25th day of Kislev in the Jewish calendar, which lines up to sometime in November or December.

It's really hard to keep track of because the moon works differently here. Kyle just kinda picked a day for Passover earlier this year, but he's not here anymore, so I'm doing my best.

The months here are very strange. I had never heard of moons and months being different, before, and it never had anything to do with the seasons, on my world. We didn't have any holidays for winter, either. I think they're very sweet.

We have candles at the Sanctuary, whenever you'd like to celebrate.

Edited 2022-12-15 06:44 (UTC)

The holiday isn't really about winter, per se. But it is about surviving. About what you have being enough to keep light in the world. So it goes well with winter that way, I think.

And the Sanctuary would be a good to light the candles, definitely, if someone isn't already planning on just celebrating at home.

Interesting. I've seen people try to celebrate Christmas here and there, but I've never observed any Hanukkah festivities.

This seems far more practical, with the candles. Christmas lights always struck me as a waste of electricity.

I think it was originally a branched oil lamp, but candles became easier to get.

You said try to celebrate. Not great times, when and where you're from?

Not since the nuclear bombs, no. But it certainly makes this place an improvement.

What would you usually do for Hanukkah that you're hoping to recreate here?

Why are there so many Earth holidays in the wintertime? It seems such a bleak season in which to celebrate anything.

[Look at that, an actual question instead of grumpy surliness or biting sarcasm.]

Edited 2022-12-20 09:22 (UTC)

[Ezra takes a moment to quietly sigh to himself, and let his exasperation flow into the Force, before her types out an answer.]

Well, like I said, this particular holiday doesn't have anything to do with winter really. It's just the date that the Jewish people who wanted to restore the Temple in Jerusalem started the rededication. Whether the story with about lamps really happened that way, or it's just a story to inspire people, the revolt was a historical event.

As for other winter holidays, it's pretty simple, I think. Winter's bleak, but it's good to remember not everything has to do that way. That the season will pass, and it will get warmer and brighter again.

Persistence in the face of adversity is always admirable and worth celebrating.

Will it though? It seemed the bleakest times here came during the fairer months of the year last time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

text; un: Lothrat

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[Text] un: 008

Re: [Text] un: 008

no subject

no subject

[Private]

[Private] cw: genocide

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[Private]

[Private]

[Private]

no subject

no subject

text; un: taka

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

text; un: lady

no subject

no subject

no subject

text | un: DN_407P

no subject

no subject

Text; un: darkness

no subject

no subject