Religious Diversity Rocks
RTod’s post reminded me of this story.
When I was in the second grade, there were three Jewish kids in our class. They didn’t celebrate Christmas. Now, in the first grade this didn’t mean much because we all still colored Santa Claus pictures and the spirit of diversity meant that the Jewish kids got to invent their own Santa Claus with different colors. By the second grade, they introduced us to Hanukkah and the menorah and all that. And they said that Jewish kids got eight gifts.
So I did what any second grader did. I complained to my parents. Why don’t we get 8 gifts? So the folks started giving us eight gifts. Granted, by the time we got to #7 and #8 we were talking about socks or a cheap shirt, but it still elongated Christmas morning and meant that I appreciated the real gifts more. Because it wasn’t socks.
How many gift did you get before becoming one of the chosen presents people?Report
I think it was in the neighborhood of 5-6. Excluding stocking gifts.Report
We often got more than 8 gifts, depending on the size/expense of the individual gifts. As a Catholic kid who went to Catholic school but grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, I remember wondering if the Jewish kids got not 8 presents, but 8 nights of gifts, with each night looking like Christmas morning. Then again, my Catholic classmates told tales of Hanukah Harry, who supposedly lived in the woods and stole presents from Christians to give to Jews. So…. yea… we were pretty ignorant despite ample opportunity to not be.Report
psst! it could be worse. I knew a homeschooled Catholic girl, who when she saw that we were having burgers on a friday, said
“But you can’t eat meat on a Friday!”
My mom’s response: “We’re Jewish”
My friend continued to say “but you can’t!” (I think her mom hadn’t exposed her to the idea of other religions. She was about ten at the time)Report
More race/ethnic based, but on one of the earliest (perhaps the pilot) episodes of “King of the Hill”, a Laotian family moves into the rural Texas town. The neighbors approach and say, “So, are you Chinese or Japanese?” “We are Laotian”. “Yea, but are you Chinese or Japanese?” “We are from Laos, a small country on the south eastern peninsula of Asia.” “CHI…NESE…OR….JAP…A…NESE?” Classic.Report
My friend told me when we were grownups she always wanted to be Jewish because we got 8 nights of gifts. I always assumed it was the opposite, Jews wanted to celebrate Christmas. All overrated– most important is being with family and being healthy.Report