A very thoughtful article appeared in the Eurasia Review on October 17, 2025 written by Dr. Fr. John Singarayar said “Every autumn, when millions of clay lamps flicker across India’s rooftops and courtyards, a beautiful paradox unfolds in the homes of Indian Christians. While their Hindu neighbors celebrate Diwali with prayers to Lakshmi and stories of Rama’s return, these followers of Christ find themselves navigating a delicate dance between faith and culture, between standing apart and belonging together.

The question that haunts many Christian families during this season is not whether to celebrate, but how to honor their beliefs while living authentically in the land they call home. Some see Diwali’s rituals as incompatible with their faith, choosing instead to retreat into quiet prayer while the world outside bursts into celebration. Others light their own lamps, not in worship of Hindu deities, but as a cultural embrace of the community around them.

Many Jews have faced similar challenges in Christian lands. I think a third way can be found in the Catholic Bible’s Books of the Maccabees. Every year in December (starting the evening of December 15 this year), Jewish people throughout the world, celebrate the eight day holiday of Hanukah. If you ask any Jew to tell you how Hanukah began, or why Jews celebrate this festival for eight days, they will relate this story. 

Once a Syrian Greek king polluted the Holy Temple in Jerusalem by erecting a statue in it. Then, after more than three years of fighting, Judah the Maccabee and his warriors recaptured the holy Temple in Jerusalem, and began to purify it. 

But all the pure olive oil for the lamp that should burn continuously had been polluted except for one little jar of oil that miraculously burned for eight days.

This Hanukah story is about two kinds of battle; the physical struggle........

© Eurasia Review