Lag B'Omer Beyond The Fire

It was already a month ago but I wanted to write about Lag B'Omer this year because our traditional class bonfire was different and it gave all of us parents pause for thought. But before I get to that I have to re-frame Lag B'Omer as a rational holiday.

The mini festival marks the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer. The Omer is the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot (Passover and the Feast of Weeks). In religious terms those seven weeks count the time between the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. In practical terms, they were the seven weeks of the grain harvest (barley first and then wheat) that called for a celebratory feast at the end. It's no coincidence that Christians count seven weeks from Easter Sunday till Pentecost (or Whit Sunday).

In the Jewish Year, the Omer is a time when we don't celebrate weddings, cut our hair or do any frivolous partying. Obviously, there was no time for any of this when everyone had to help with the grain harvest. So of course the rabbis had to come up with a reason for this period of semi-mourning, which wasn't mourning at all but rather a time of concerted and focused effort on one project - the harvest.

Its all a bit silly really. They say that 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students died of a plague during this time because they didn't show enough respect to one another. You couldn't make it up. Oh, they did make it up. And on the 33rd day of the Omer, the plague stopped. Hooray! What probably happened was that 24,000 students fell in the battles against the Romans and on the day that happened to be the 33rd day of the Omer, either they had some minor victory or the war ended. That would tie in with the fact that traditionally children used to play with bows and arrows on Lag B'Omer.

It's also supposed to be the deathday of another great Rabbi. But we don't celebrate the births or deaths of any of the real central figures to Judaism - Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Kings Solomon and David, or even any of the prophets, or, in fact, any of the revered characters to whom God actually spoke (Samson, Daniel). So 1. Bonfires and parties are a funny way to mark someone's death, unless it's Guy Fawkes or Hitler. And 2. If we're celebrating someone's life I'd rather it be Theodor Herzl who paved the way for a Jewish State and so saved thousands of Jews who moved to Palestine from being murdered by the Nazis. Or Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain who together discovered penicillin thereby saving millions of people from previously fatal infections and infectious diseases.

I can't find any reference to a natural or agricultural phenomenon linking Lag B'Omer to bonfires so I'm thinking that maybe at the end of the grain harvests they started to burn the stubble in the fields around this date? It could be. It's a theory.

So we have bonfires and parties to celebrate Lag B'Omer. It's huge in Israel. Every school class and youth club have an enormous bonfire and the older kids often stay up all night. I've written about it before.  

Back to our class bonfire. We've had one every year with DD's class since they were four years old in nursery school. When they were very young the children largely ignored the bonfire and we kept them busy with some sort of activity. In 2nd grade the school had one large bonfire for everyone and a fair in the playground. No one was really satisfied with that and anyway, by the next year the open space next to the school had been turned into a proper football pitch with expensive astroturf. So no place for a fire there.

In 3rd and 4th grades the activity was the fire. The kids collected the wood and were fascinated by watching it burn - as we all are to some extent, let's be honest. The game was to build as big a fire as possible and to keep feeding it with more and more wood. However, this year was entirely different.

They built a moderate fire and the obligatory tiny hearth nearby on which to roast marshmallows. Then they spent the rest of the evening playing dodge ball (or king ball, or two camps, or whatever variation they play). Another group sat and sang songs. The parents provided far too much food as usual but we're the same as we we've been for years. It's the children who are noticeably growing up. It was a wonderful thing to see the difference between 9-10 years old and 10-11 years old.

In times of heightened awareness about air pollution and the environment, in which groups are being encouraged to attend central or shared bonfires, and forest fires meant that size and other restrictions were imposed countrywide, it was a good to see that our children have moved beyond the fire.

Lag B'omer Reasons 2B Cheerful

Our bonfire with our picnic table in the background. 

1
Lag B'omer
I write about Lag B'omer every year but it happens every year so what's a blogger to do? This year the parents' committee for DD's class organized a bonfire for the civilized time of 5.30 - 7.30 pm. A list went out for the accompanying picnic and of course we were urged to bring any wood we could find to feed the fire.

The list is a funny thing. There are 30 children in the class and the items are all about 20 shekels (4 GBP) each so everyone is paying about the same. But the effort differs according to the item. For occasions inside school there are those mothers who like to bake so the cakes are no problem. There is a mad scramble to donate the disposables (plates, cups, cutlery, napkins, etc...) from those that can't be bothered have a busy week that week. The next to go are the bottles of drink which can also be bought in advance. The tubs of humus and cheese are also pretty popular. Pita bread is okay too though it has to be bought on the day to be fresh. What no one likes is the platters of cut up vegetables or fruit. It's expensive, it's time consuming and time sensitive, and it's hard to transport.

For Lag B'omer it was a felafel picnic. By the time I saw the list it had been up a good 20 minutes. Apart from the fruit and vegetables, the only other item left were 20 felafel balls (hot). I went for the felafel balls and thought myself very clever when I hit on the idea of ordering them from the felafel kiosk around the corner. Of course I was outsmarted by the other felafel mums (there were four of us). One of the mothers ordered 80 felafel balls, another picked them up on the way to the bonfire, and I only had to give her my 20 shekels, Sorted.

Our cooking fire for marchmallows

We went with our old wooden broom handle, an old chopping board that was going mouldy inside, a stack of paper supermarket bags, and some small raffia baskets. I felt a bit pathetic when I saw the already built bonfire set with real logs, shipping pallets, and whole planks of wood from I know not where. (And best not to ask.)

One of the fathers made a small fire for roasting marshmallows (another popular item on the list). I missed the bit where it said to bring your own partially cooked potatoes wrapped in tin foil but I don't think DD noticed them and anyway there were loads of spares.

At the end we found out at the parents' committee all have kids in 6th Grade too, so we didn't have to put out our fire as it was being passed on to the 6th Graders (7.30 - 9.30 pm. Or later, I have no idea).

Israelis know how to do all this outdoors stuff efficiently and I'm happy to go with the flow as long as it doesn't include climbing mountains.

2
Swimming lessons
DDs summer swimming lessons started this week. It's our fourth year and every year I'm amazed at how much better she is and how much more advanced the class is. I also found out after four years that the man who runs the lessons speaks English. I've been breaking my teeth speaking to him in Hebrew until now. I can manage in Hebrew but life is so much easier in English.

3
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
When we finished Heidi's Children I was dreading getting DD to agree to a new book. She hates change or anything new until she gets there, when of course she loves it. I was thinking of The Railway Children with the promise of seeing the film at the end.

However, on the evening of the final chapter of Heidi's Children, DD asked me, "Have we got the book about the children in the cupboard with a lion and a wicked Queen?" We do have it and I was delighted. Apparently they are hearing it at school in Hebrew and the teacher told them that it was an English book.

DD explained to me about how the children were evacuated to the country during WW2 and I told her about Grandma and Grandpa's evacuation stories. We're well into it now. Of course I have the full set of books in the series but I'm not sure I've got the patience to go through all of them like I did with Harry Potter.

4
Seeds
My cousin,  who on her last visit brought us the lemon scented geranium cutting from her garden in Pinner, Middx, was in Israel for a visit. She came round for coffee  the other night and brought me some some seeds for a vegetable garden on the balcony. So I guess I really do have to do it this summer.

As usual I'm linking up with Michelle on Mummy from the Heart for this week's Reasons 2B Cheerful.

Al Fresco Reasons 2B Cheerful

DD's friend came over for lunch and they had the first al fresco meal of the season.

Truthfully, we are not very outdoors people and we prefer to eat indside even if the weather is fine. That and the fact that the balcony had gathered loads of 'stuff' over the winter and needed to be cleared, so we'd not got round to eating out yet.

We have lots of R2BCs to look forward to in the coming week. On Sunday evening DD's class are having their Lag B'omer bonfire. Sunday happens to be my day off and Monday is a holiday from school. On Tuesday my college class are out on a field trip all day so I get another day off. On Wednesday afternoon DD's swimming lessons start. So I'm looking forward to a great week ahead.

Mine was a short one this week but you can see more Reasons 2B Cheerful over at Michelle's Mummy from the Heart.

Lag B'Omer Part 2: Chabad And the Bouncy Castles

The Lag B'Omer celebrations continued today with a day off school (but not off work for working parents which is problematic for parents of younger children) and public happenings and events around the country. We decided to join the local Chabad Parade from the park to a school playground where... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, what is Chabad? I mentioned them once before in this post but basically Chabad is an ultra-orthadox and international, Jewish organisation that promotes acts of loving-kindness and emphasises reaching out to the unaffiliated to include them in the community. You may have heard of them called Lubavitch, after the place where the movement started. I am not a member and I'm not even that religious - let alone ultra-anything. However, I do have great respect for the work that Chabad do.

In the park.

So we met in the park and found the drummers. All the children were given hats, flags and raffle tickets and we were off. We marched out of the park and down the street waving our flags and singing out loudly for the Messiah to come soon (that being one of the favourite songs) and about David being being the King of Israel. If you had told me three years ago that I would ever join such a spectacle I would have insisted emphatically, "never! Not in a million years!" But there I was dancing away in my silly hat and enjoying every moment. Amazing what motherhood does to you.

DD with her flag, raffle ticket round her wrist, and her water bottle (hot climate means never leave home without one).

En route.

At one point we stopped under a balcony and this woman came out and threw sweets down for the children. I don't know if it was planned or not but the kids thought it was magic.

Eventually (after about 5 minutes) we arrived at the school gates.

Imagine our excitement when we saw these in the playground.

And this.

And here's another one.

DD spent over an hour in the ship. "Hello Mummy! I'm on a ship!"

And almost an hour on the desert island.

They gave out free ice lollies to the children.

There were hot dogs as well but I think it's a shame to feed your child poison after such a wonderful day.

I tried to sit and listen to the raffle draw but DD took off her shoes and told me, "I going there to the ship." She was off before I could stop her so I had to follow. I gave our tickets to the woman sitting next to me - I hope she won.

It took repeated deals of '5 minutes' to get DD to leave. She ran home still on a high. A quick shower, supper, two short stories and she was asleep within seconds of me leaving the room. Aaaand relaaaax.

Lag B'Omer Is Bonfire Night - All Night

Tonight is Lag B'Omer. It's a day of celebration in the middle of seven weeks of restricted fun from Passover until Pentecost. There are various stories, myths and customs connected to this whole period - I suggest you google The Omer and Lag B'omer if you're interested. I'm merely going to offer you a glimpse of what tonight means in Israel today: bonfire night!

About two weeks before the kids start collecting wood. They collect from the recently pruned trees left by the side of the roads for the rubbish trucks, they raid building sites and the back of supermarkets for delivery palettes, they scour the neighbourhood behind buildings and anywhere they might find discarded wooden doors or furniture. And they "borrow" the supermarket trolleys to aid the collection.

DD and I set out to the wasteground at the bottom of our street at about 6.30pm. On the way we met teams of supermarket managers going round with big vans to collect up their trolleys. "It costs them 5 shekels," one of them told me, "but it costs us a fortune." I asked him why he didn't wait until the morning as the older kids don't even start until about 9 or 10pm. "We're out all night," he told me. "We need to grab them before some of the stupid ones try to burn them on the fire."

At 6.30 it's still light and the younger children are out with their class or families for an earlier bonfire.

However, the older ones who start much later and stay out all night, have sent scouts ahead to secure their spot. They also guard the wood as it comes in. Parents drive up with boot-loads, more trolleys... the amount of wood collected is phenominal. And it just kept on coming.

Some of the bonfire structures were works of art.

And some of the bigger ones can be quite scary when alight.

But Israelis are good about putting them out afterwards. By the time it was getting dark some of the younger parties were already done.

DD and I found some friends who kindly invited us to join them. In fact there's a lot of comraderie. As 'our' fire was lit quite early we had a lot of requests to take a starter flame from us.

Obviously there was a lot of food about (we are Jewish after all). Our lot put marshmallows on skewers and melted them over the fire. After dessert they burnt the sausages and gleefully gobbled them down in bread rolls with ketchup.

Some parties were more elaborate.

DD stuck to marshmallows which she enjoyed cooking but declined to eat after they were all black.

Then the big boys started to arrive and they came with their music and more wood.

After that things just got crazy.

And at about 8.15 there was a tug at my shirt and a tired little voice said, "I want to go home now." So we did.