Smushing Hanukkah

Over the weekend, the New York Times published a not-so-modest proposal in favor of families’ feeling liberated to schedule their holiday celebrations flexibly to make life easier. “When so much of life is about relaxing customs in favor of convenience—podcasting your favorite TV show or telecommuting; early voting or the e-mail wedding invitation—why not free holidays from their timeworn shackles and welcome them into the digital age?” he asks. The author’s specific example comes from his own family, which observes Thanksgiving on Friday and, on Saturday, “we celebrate all eight nights of Hanukkah in one madcap afternoon.”

You could argue that the above is a classic articulation of the principles laid out in the Feiler Faster Thesis, the doctrine, named for author Bruce Feiler, who is credited with fashioning it, which broadly implies that the pace of day-to-day life is sped up in the “digital age” of “telecommuting,” 24/7 news-cycles, and the like. The resonance makes sense given that the author of the article is, well, Bruce Feiler.

Still, with Thanksgiving only a few days away and Hanukkah in just over a week, it probably bears reminding that there are … eight days of Hanukkah.

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Time-Shifting Holidays [NYT]