Christians around the world will bow for communion and sing "Silent Night" in churches lit only by the candles held by worshippers. They will celebrate the birth of Jesus, who became their savior, with the retelling of the story from the Gospels of the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and humbly lying in a manger.
Later this evening or Sunday morning, most likely with family gathered, they will open brightly wrapped gifts around Christmas trees -- reminiscent of the gifts brought to the baby by "wise men" from afar.
Schools are closed, as are many businesses. A few necessary workers linger at place like hospitals, police departments and fire stations. The Western world seems to stop for this auspicious occasion.
But what about those of other faiths?
CHARITY AND CHINESE
"So what do Jews do because it's not a Jewish holiday," Rabbi Rob Lennick of Community Synagogue of Northwest Arkansas in Rogers and rabbi-in-residence for the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Eureka Springs wondered aloud. "They're not going to go to church. They're not doing a lot of the cultural aspects like gift-giving.
"Many Jews are fortunate to be invited to the homes of their Christian friends as part of the extended family," he continued.
"In 21st-century America, many Jews are part of mixed-religious families, so in addition to Hanukkah, a good number of Jews will be celebrating Christmas with their Christian relatives," added Rabbi Jacob Adler of Temple Shalom of Northwest Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Increasingly, the Christian holidays find Jews volunteering in a variety of settings, relieving their Christian friends of responsibilities.
Lennick recalled time spent in a Brookline, Mass., hospital as a youth, pushing a book cart to patient rooms. "A lot of Jews would go just to be a friendly visitor for anyone alone in the hospital. Just someone to say a kind word."
Adler said members of Temple Shalom have traded child care with various local churches on their respective holidays, "so the Christians could worship on Christmas and Easter and Jews on High Holidays."
"For more than 150 years, Americans have attached special significance to giving charity and volunteering on Christmas as ways to fulfill the holiday's spiritual mission," writes Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, in his blog "A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish." Plaut authored a book of the same name in 2012, recommended by Adler. Charitable acts were heightened by the 1843 publication of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Plaut said. "Charity among Jews in the United States through the early 1800s was localized in synagogues, organized for the purpose of taking care of newly arriving Sephardi Jews." Charitable organizations soon were established to help the Jewish community at large.
"By the end of the 19th century, the Jewish community was strong enough to consider joining in the charitable Christmas fever that swept America," Plaut wrote. "Jews, who often sat on the sidelines while their many American neighbors celebrated their December holiday, saw this outpouring of Christmas charity as an opportunity to be part of a new American tradition."
"American Jewish charitable efforts soon began to focus not just on monetary aid, but on relieving fellow Americans from their work, so they could instead spend Christmas Day with family," Plaut continued. A Dec. 29, 1927, editorial in the American Israelite reported on the camaraderie of Jews and non-Jewish colleagues at the Post Office who agreed to substitute for each others' observances. This also occurred in hospitals, the military and government agencies.
The American Israelite summed it up on Dec. 28, 1944: "Jews ask extra duty so Christian buddies may observe Christmas," Plaut wrote.
This year, volunteers from Temple Shalom will step in to prepare and serve the free community Sunday Supper, a cooperative outreach of five local churches hosted each week at Trinity United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. Members of Good Shepherd Lutheran in Fayetteville were scheduled to serve Sunday.
Interfaith friendships firmly established the need. "They volunteered to perform a mitzvah (good deed) and sub for us on that Sunday," said the Rev. Clint Schnekloth, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran, of the members of Temple Shalom. "Then, we ended up in conversation with the Islamic Center (of Northwest Arkansas in Fayetteville), who are also interested in helping with the meal. So they decided to send some volunteers also."
And an urban folk tale finds the Jews at Chinese restaurants after completing their volunteer shifts. Both Lennick and Adler admitted to the "old joke," as Lennick called it.
"As far as I know, it's because they have the day off and feel like going out to eat, and the only reliably open places to eat were Chinese restaurants," Adler said. "It's also relevant that Chinese food was one of the first non-Jewish cuisines that American Jews began to eat."
"We all know that eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve is a sacred Jewish tradition," wrote Plaut in his blog. "Chinese restaurants became a favorite eatery for Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States and to New York City, in particular, in the early 20th century. The origin of this venerated Christmas Jewish tradition dates back over 100 years to the Lower East Side of New York City. Jews found Chinese restaurants readily available in urban and suburban areas where both Jews and Chinese lived in close proximity."
A brief sampling of Chinese restaurants in Northwest Arkansas finds them open late on Christmas Eve, but not on Christmas Day. In fact, several will be closed until mid-week.
Another "Jewish tradition" also finds them at movie theaters on Christmas Eve because crowds are sparse, Plaut wrote in another blog post.
Watching the rest of the world celebrate can be hard, Lennick admitted. "As a rabbi, in virtually every congregation I've served, Jews have to be convinced to be Jewish at Christmas," he said.
"Every year, we try to turn Christmas into a positive experience," he said. "It's not about Christmas. It's about being respectful of what our neighbors are doing. We work to develop our own ways to occupy ourselves during what is the most important moment in the Christian identity. We want to stand in solidarity."
This year, Hanukkah begins on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, and many Jews will celebrate their own special time. (See sidebar).
"Many Jews will be lighting Hanukkah candles, eating latkes (the Ashkenazic custom) or jelly doughnuts (the Sefardic custom), playing dreidel, giving presents, eating chocolate coins, perhaps giving money to the children, singing Hanukkah songs and generally having a good time with family and friends," Adler said.
ANNUAL GATHERING
"Just as Christians are divided into denominations, and different denominations may celebrate or not celebrate a festival, and some hold the same celebration on different dates," shared Hameed Naseem in an email. Naseem is the president of the Tulsa chapter of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and faculty adviser of Al-Islam Students Association at the University of Arkansas. "Yes, a large number [of Christians] celebrate Christmas around the end of the year. So is the case with Muslims."
This year, many Muslims celebrated the birthday of their Prophet Muhammad on Dec. 12. Last year, the celebration was on Dec. 23. And next year, it is expected to "lag another 11 days to fall on Dec. 1," Naseem said.
"The Muslim religious calendar follows the lunar calendar, but does not readjust after every three years to juxtapose with seasons -- as Jewish or Hindu calendars do," he explained. "Therefore, Muslim holidays always tarry through different seasons to complete a whole cycle in 33 years. You may have noticed that Ramadan used to be in the winter months about 14 years ago, but now it is during long summer months."
Ahmadiyya Muslims hold their Jalsa Salana (annual gathering) from Dec. 26 through Dec. 28 every year in Qadian, India. "This congregation was started 125 years ago by the command of Allah in 1891 by the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community," Naseem said. "He states the purpose of this gathering as follows: 'The primary purpose of this Convention is to enable every sincere individual to personally experience religious benefits; They may enhance their knowledge and -- due to their being blessed and enabled by Allah, The Exalted -- their perception [of Allah] may progress.
"'Among its secondary benefits is that this congregational meeting together will promote mutual introduction among all brothers, and it will strengthen the fraternal ties within this Community.'"
Naseem grew up in Qadian, personally experiencing the spiritual benefits of these Jalsas, he said. "Weeks before the days of the Jalsa, we would clean the town together as volunteers and would clean and prepare our own homes for the guests of the Promised Messiah, as we would call them," he wrote.
"Of course, many who would stay at our home were our far and near relatives," Naseem continued. "However, every year there would be others who were not related, but were known to our father. Many families would host guests whom they had never met before. Some years, if we had some extra resources, we would paint our house in anticipation of these guests. Mostly, we would vacate three bedrooms out of our four-bedroom house for the guests, and the entire family would move to our large library room, which also doubled as our storage."
In addition, guesthouses were built to accommodate guests during Jalsa Salana.
The family stocked up on food items, including freshly shelled rice, ground wheat, various legumes and spices. The food for all the homes with guests was prepared in a large community kitchen.
"Many of our guests -- being from Kerala (a state on the southwest coast of India) -- were not acquainted with and had not developed a particular liking for the North Indian cuisine," Naseem recalled. "So, my mother would cook large amounts of food all day long that was palatable to our guests. We, as children, would seat [the guests] on dining tables, serve them food and water and attend to every need of these guests. I still remember the extreme happiness it gave us to provide for our guests.
"I remember going to the convention with our relatives listening to the sermons and going for late night and dawn prayers, while still braving the cold of North India," Naseem continued. "It was even harder for our guests who had traveled north from the temperate climate of the south. I often reminisce about those days and draw a very deep sense of spiritual uplifting from them."
Naseem travels to India this year "to participate in and spiritually gain from this year's Jalsa Salana, Qadian during this year's Christmas holidays."
BUDDHA'S ENLIGHTENMENT
Many Buddhists will celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, the Solstice or another winter holiday in addition to their own Zen practice, said Barbara G. Taylor, senior dharma teacher at the Morning Star Zen Center in Fayetteville. Some will volunteer to help those in need, as many do throughout the year.
Taylor shares this story of her own spiritual practice.
What do Buddhists do when their neighbors are opening Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa presents? When they are celebrating Diwali or lighting the Yuletide fires? Like adherents of most of the world's other spiritual traditions, Buddhists, too, celebrate a major holiday near the time of the winter solstice. And their holiday even includes a star shining in the East.
Buddha's Enlightenment Day commemorates the result of Shakyamuni Buddha's search to understand himself and is considered the most important day of the Buddhist year. During the week preceding the celebration -- which is observed on or around Dec. 8 -- Zen Buddhist monasteries throughout the world hold their most intense retreats, with some practitioners abstaining from sleep for the entire seven days. But even such strenuous practice is a really just a shadow, a small reminder, of what the Buddha experienced.
Shakyamani Buddha is the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in the sixth century B.C. Born to an extraordinarily wealthy and privileged family and actually raised to be a king, he spent his childhood, youth and young adulthood surrounded with beautiful objects, sweet smells, lovely sounds and luscious tastes, dressed in the finest garments, waited upon by servants, protected from harm and sheltered from anything that was difficult, ugly or unpleasant. His life was an enviable one -- he lacked nothing, wanted nothing that youth and wealth could supply, including a lovely wife and an infant son. But despite all these pleasures and privileges, he longed to see the world outside his palace walls, the world from which his family -- with all its good intentions -- had tried so hard to protect him.
Siddhartha Gautama left the palace and immediately encountered three things he had never seen before. He saw an old woman, wrinkled and frail, with trembling hands and legs that would barely support her, with cataracts in her eyes. Next, he saw sick people, suffering from painful, incurable illnesses, covered with sores and vomit, and others with injured bodies, infected wounds and broken bones. And, finally, he saw people carrying a corpse -- their beloved husband, friend and father -- taking him away to burn on a funeral pyre. Suddenly, Siddhartha Gautama realized all life is suffering. And he could not understand why. He saw one last unfamiliar sight: a homeless wandering monk, gaunt from self-denial, wearing ragged robes and carrying a begging bowl.
Bewildered, Siddhartha Gautama removed his silken clothes, abandoned his rich possessions, his family and all that he had known, and went out into the new and unfamiliar world he just discovered, seeking to learn what it means to be human. Following the path of an ascetic, mendicant monk, he wandered as far as his feet would carry him, wondering "What is human life?" and "Why do humans suffer so?" Eventually, his question grew so large and overwhelming that he could focus on it alone. He spent six years sitting under the Bodhi tree, never sleeping, barely eating, only asking, "What am I?"
And then, one day, after he had sat for all those years in meditation, suddenly he saw the morning star, shining in the Eastern sky. And he attained enlightenment.
At that moment, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha. The word "Buddha" in Sanskrit means simply an awakened one. How did he do it? How did he attain enlightenment? He only saw the morning star.
You, too, can wake up. As Dogen reminds us,
To study the way of the Buddha is to study oneself.
To study oneself is to forget oneself.
To forget oneself is to be enlightened by everything.
NAN Religion on 12/24/2016