New Year's, Football, and Winter Break

One great thing about the Holiday Season in America is that it comes in full force. The Season begins showing its face with Thanksgiving in late November and then there is a gradual increase in Holiday "spirit" up until Christmas. Because all things in America must come in abundance (or over-abundance) we follow Christmas with another week of relative "down-time" until New Year's Day. During this week, students enjoy winter break from classes, sports fans indulge in endless college football games and the beginning of professional football playoffs, and nearly everyone participates in some type of gathering to usher in the new year.
This year as my family recovers from our holiday "hangover" that included two weeks of visitors from America (which went by far too quickly) we find the culture of Israel only adds to this post-Christmas headache. First of all, for obvious reasons the country does not do much to acknlowedge Christmas day. (I actually had to skip classes to celebrate Christmas with my family.) Except for the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, the only areas in Israel acknowledging the season are found in some of the Arab neighborhoods. This came with a benefit of causing our family to purposely seek out the meaning of the Season and the joy of the season instead of taking it for granted but we will enjoy returning to a place that is a bit more "Christmas(y)".
The second thing adding to the headache is my inability to simply waste time watching college football. Granted, I usually don't care to watch Eastern Carolina play Billy Bob's University in the "'Preperation H' Medicated Cream Bowl" but not even having the choice is disapointing. Instead I tried to re-create the feeling by turning on the TV and watching Haifa Soccer Club play Negev-United in a much anticipated match. Unfortunately the match ended in a tie when the police fired tear gas into the crowd after the fans began throwing rocks at the referees. There was no reason for the outbreak of violence but in a post-game interview one fan explained that "this is the Middle East, that should be reason enough for violence". (The previous statement is not true- please disregard.)
If the lack of Christmas spirit and college football isn't enough, Israel provides the final "holiday buzz kill" by not even acknowledging New Year's Day. They are currently in the 3rd month of year 5969 so they have no need to celebrate the beginning of the "pagan" year. Yes, I have class on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Yeah!
So, this year while many of my American readers gather with friends on this New Year's Day watching football and eating meat and cheese mixtures spread on Ritz crackers, I will be sitting in class longing for my two day break from studies that comes in March in celebration of Purim (the events of the Book of Esther). So please enjoy the day and don't worry about us. The tomatoes and humus packed into Pita bread and the cricket match on the TV is a worthy consolation for missing New Year's Celebrations... it is also the source of the saying, "Next Year in America" !