Jewish Dopers: what holidays do you observe?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Raised Conservative, currently belong to a Reformed temple, and part of an interfaith family.

We currently do the following:
Shabbat - candles, challah, wine and prayers at home for Friday night dinner
Rosh Hashanah - festive meal at home first night, go to shul all day, festive meal at a relative second night
Yom Kippur - shul and fast all day
Sukkot - build a sukkah in the backyard and eat it in 3-5 times
Shemini Atzeret - honestly, I’ve never been sure what separates this from Sukkot
Simchat Torah - if we’re not otherwise busy, and not too tired, might go to synagogue and dance. Haven’t in several years, but always mean to go.
Chanukkah - menorah lighting, latkes, and presents at home
Tu B’Shevat - nope
Purim - go to synagogue in costume in the evening.
Pesach (Passover) - seder at home for 1st two nights (one big with lots of relatives, one small), don’t eat chametz for a week.
Lag B’Omer - Never really understood what this one is…
Shavu’ot - nope
Tisha B’Av - usually don’t notice it until it’s past. Never do anything except maybe eat a dairy meal if I remember to do so.

I would guess that my “score” of about 7.5/13 is on the high side for my level of observance. Most Orthodox will probably say “all of them, and more minor ones not on that list”. Most Reformed will say Chanukah, Passover, RH, YK at best… maybe Purim. Most Conservative will be somewhere in between.

But I don’t think the idea of having more holidays than most adherents observe is limited to Judaism. Do most Catholics observe all of these:
http://www.calendar-12.com/catholic_holidays
? (for example)

22

Yeah for most Catholics it’s just Lenten season/Easter/Christmas, although certain groups will celebrate other days (Dec. 12, feast day for the Virgin de Guadalupe, is very big among Mexican-Americans).

23

Reform.
Raised Christian (I converted to Judaism). I stopped celebrating Easter and Christmas long before becoming Jewish. Traded them in for much better holidays. :wink:

I observe:
Shabbat - light candles whenever I get home on Friday nights, don’t work on Saturdays and spend the Sabbath reading Jewish books, generally relaxing and reflecting
Rosh Hashanah - synagogue plus apples and honey
Yom Kippur - synagogue
Hanukkah - light the candles, eat latkes and donuts, attend the synagogue Hanukkah party
Passover - hold a seder and attend other people’s seders.

Purim and Sukkot are fun holidays but are more for the kids (or at least the parties held at my synagogue are more geared towards the kids), of which I don’t have any, so I don’t do anything for them other than maybe go to the synagogue Purim party or Sukkot picnic.

I celebrate Shavuot and Simchat Torah as celebrations of Jewish thought and literature, so I’ll read some Jewish books around then and whip up some fruit and dairy for Shavuot.

I don’t observe the rest of them.

24

(oops–double post. see below :slight_smile: )

25

Comedian Louis CK does a funny bit about racial slurs.
He says out loud the insulting words for different ethnic groups; But when he gets to the Jews, he says, there’s a problem: no nasty slur. The legitimate word and the insult word are the same :“JEW”.
It’s just a matter of how much nasty sneer you put in your voice.
Like all comedy, there’s a kernel of truth behind it.