Branding Hanukkah

Where are you for Hanukkah? Ask young parents nowadays and they will heave a sad sigh and tell you about the crazy race waiting for them this week - from one glitzy show to another, from Maya Buskila to Yehuda Levy and Yael Bar-Zohar, from festival to Festigal, from eating sugar-dusted doughnuts in the local mall to a candle-lighting ceremonies at the local "gymboree." Never have Hanukkah celebrations been so glamorous or extravagant, and never has the expense been so great, with tickets for a show as costly as NIS 200 and more. And never have the celebrations been so disconnected from the original content of the holiday.

The steep expense is not the only problem facing parents. More complicated is the apathy of the children. Another stimulus, another play, another toy - the children get bored in minutes, and many parents rush to the next immediate gratification.

Indeed, this is the grand hour for the advertisers, producers, actors, malls and toymakers. They turn parental weaknesses into a fount of enormous income. Helping them is "Hanukkah-Christmas," an American-born concept saturated with political correctness, which quickly found its way to Israel. The proximity of Hanukkah and Christmas blurred the borders between traditional Hanukkah gelt and the custom of gift-giving on the Christian holiday.

But the choice whether to surrender to the torrent of temptation is still in the hands of the parents. Just before they open their wallets, perhaps they should ask themselves whether anything in the race is a reminder of exactly why Hanukkah is celebrated. How many children nowadays know the meaning of the holiday, the story of the Maccabees as a tale of Jewish heroism, a victory of spirit and soul over materialism? How many parents nowadays have the patience to sit down to tell their children the story and its message? And then they don't understand why their children are a little confused between Yehuda Maccabee and the Yehuda Levy of the Fox clothing commercials.

There are many interpretations of the story of Hanukkah, and since the earliest days of Zionism various national factions have tried to strengthen their claims with its attributes. As a holiday with few halakhic rules or religious limits, both the religious and secular can find messages to share in it. But that common denominator is not necessarily to gather 'round the shopping spree.

The Festival of Lights has been turned into the holiday of commerce and brands, the holiday of corporations and producers. There's a price to be paid for this materialist race, and parents are begining to feel it now. But the heaviest price will be paid later. They will have to work hard to finance the increasing demands of their children, since there is no end to the supply and its temptations.

Forsaking understanding of the holiday's customs, and chasing after the fashionable brands with all the financial costs involved, could be interpreted by children as total surrender to a world in which heroes are stars on TV and in advertisements and the message is that the most important ambition is to look like them.