December 17, 2004

Evergreen residents embrace the holidays

By Bea Baechle
Editor

“It’s the most wonderful time, of the year.” With Ramadan and Diwahli ending in November, Christmas and Chanukah are the focus in Evergreen this month.

Night of Lights
An Evergreen Valley tradition for the last 19 years, Night of Lights on Dec. 11 featured an evening of Christmas carols, Christmas lights, pictures with Santa and holiday goodies—culminating with a spectacular fireworks display.

The holiday spirit swept up hundreds of guests as Councilmember Dave Cortese led the countdown to light a 45-foot Christmas tree atop one of the waterslides at Raging Waters adjacent to Lake Cunningham Park.

The Granadosin Brothers, Levy, Gene and Charles, sang a medley of Christmas selections for Night of Lights.

The event provided an opportunity for local musical groups to volunteer and perform to give back to their community.

This included: Chaboya Middle School Band directed by Karen Kolber, Evergreen Valley Methodist Church Choir directed by Charles Granadosin; Piedmont Hills High School Chamber and Night of Lights Ensemble directed by Andrew Ford, the Alum Rock Golden Handbells directed by Colin Ford and the Granadosin Brothers (Levy, Gene and Charles). 

The Evergreen Valley Service Organization, a nonprofit group with a commitment to “making Evergreen a better place to live,” produced Night of Lights.

Donations of canned food benefited Operation Share.

“Once we got the weather report, we knew it was a ‘go.’  People began to arrive, hundreds of them, to stake out their little space from which to watch the festivities,” said Carol Allsup, a volunteer on the Night of Lights planning committee. “Everything fell into place; the music, Santa photos and the fireworks.  Even the hot chocolate performed as expected—it ran short!

“Seriously, the Night of Lights is a great celebration for Evergreen Valley families. The tradition continues and plans are underway for another successful production in 2005,” she added.

Special thanks to the Night of Lights Committee Dallas Clark, Carol Allsup, Kathy Atwood, Colin Ford, Bob Pruitt, Kathy Bowers, Dona Nichols and Pastor Bob Chicou, Master of Ceremonies and Reverend from Evergreen Valley United Methodist Church.

Monique Cabral and her 8-month-old daughter Emma enjoyed the festive decorations and environment of Windermere’s Winter Wonderland.

Additional thanks to exclusive media sponsor Bill Bellou, publisher of the Evergreen Times, Raging Waters for hosting the event and McDonalds on White Road and San Felipe Road for supplying the refreshments and volunteers. 

And thanks to all the performers, technical crews, park rangers, volunteers from Silver Creek High School, San Jose State, Evergreen Valley Community College and Girl Scout Troop 439—too many to mention individually.

Pack 275 Cub Scouts raise $500 for Toys for Tots
Pack 275’s small group of 25 Cub Scouts decided to do something different with the money they raised at their annual holiday baked goods auction this year. Instead of using the proceeds to benefit the Pack directly, they decided to give all the money raised to Toys for Tots.

Not only did they fill a toy barrel the Marines brought to overflowing, they also raised $486 at the baked goods auction.

“In the parking lot afterwards, one of the parents thought that was too close to being $500, so she added another $15 to make a grand total of $501 raised for the Toys for Tots!” said Michael Gabler, assistant cub master for Pack 275.

“Our event was, by our standards, a great success! The boys had a great time and so did the parents,” continued Gabler, noting that Councilmember Dave Cortese stopped by and provided the boys with a few words of encouragement as well.

It was also noted that the entire Santa Clara County Boy Scout Council donated 52,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Food Bank.

Celebrating Chanukah

The Steinberg family of Evergreen celebrated Chanukah for eight days starting at sunset Dec. 7. “I think it’s special to be able to have friends over and explain to them about Chanukah,” said Josh Steinberg, a sixth grader at Tom Matsumoto School. It’s also fun to exchange presents with them.”

Dani, Josh and Rachel Steinberg of Matsumoto Elementary School celebrate Chanukah.

Although he doesn’t celebrate Christmas, he said he enjoys the Christmas lights and noted that “it’s fun see what other people do for Christmas, their traditions.”

His twin sisters Dani and Rachel, fourth graders at Matsumoto, added that it’s fun to light the Menorah every night for eight days.

Alan Steinberg explains the roots of the celebration, which stem back to about 2200 years ago, during the age of the Greek Empire, when the Kingdom of Israel was being ruled by a Syrian king named Antiochus.

“Following the Greek ideology that everyone should conform to Greek ways, he forced the Jews of Israel to adopt Greek gods, clothing and language,” said Steinberg.

“This was accepted by some Jews, who adopted the Greek lifestyle. But there were other Jews who felt that the belief in their God, along with their culture and language, was worth fighting for. These fighters became known as the Maccabees. They were led by Mattathias and his son Judah “the Maccabee” (hammer).

“Unlike the Greek and Syrian armies, the vastly outnumbered Maccabees fought a guerilla war, slowly gaining ground against their enemies, until they finally prevailed. The Jewish people won their freedom from oppression and conformity, but at a price. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled, with Jewish artifacts replaced by statues of Greek gods and by the presence of pigs and other unclean animals.

“And the Eternal Lamp, which was to always remain lit, had only enough oil to last for one more day. It would take eight days to find replacement olive oil and bring it back. Miraculously, the oil meant for one day kept burning for eight, burning until it was replenished. Then the Temple was cleaned out and purified, and then rededicated on the 25th of the month of Kislev, 164 BCE,” he concluded.

The word “Chanukah” means “rededication,” and is celebrated for eight days from the 25th of Kislev on the Jewish calendar. Because the calendar is based on the lunar cycle, it can sometimes fall as early as late November, and as late as the last week of December.

Steinberg said it was not originally a holiday of gift giving. “While that is a relatively new tradition (mostly in the United States), there are still old traditions celebrated all around the world. We eat foods cooked in oil (potato pancakes or “latkes”) to remember the miracle of the oil. And we play “dreidle” to remember how the Jews secretly kept studying Hebrew even under Greek rule. And, of course, we burn the Chanukah menorah by adding a new candle for each night of Chanukah.”