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Opinion

Festivals Festivals Festivals

January 5, 2012 08:06
3 min read

Is it me – or are Jewish holidays coming around with increasing frequency? And/or indeed are holidays in general coming around with increasing frequency? As soon as Chanukah finished we have had New Year (Shana Tova to my readers) and now in January here at Nightingale we need to start turning our attention to Pesach. I can’t remember whether Pesach is early or late this year – certainly it’s one or the other. Whichever it is, we need to start thinking about it. At Nightingale the logistical arrangements for this Festival are – to put it mildly, extensive. Not only do we need to plan logistically for a massive changeover operation in some 9 dining areas we also need to enlist the support of a wide group of friends in order to assist us with the running of the Sederim – of which there are at least 7 held simultaneously!

Other than Passover of course we have to start thinking about other Festivals coming in the interim – including Tu Bishvat (which requires very little preparation other than the purchase of a tree and the organisation of a party) and of course Purim. As with Chanukah, Purim is a Festival which is very child orientated. One of the difficulties that we have at Nightingale is that we don’t have any children living here! We do have a lot of older people whose average age is 90 and 13 of whom are aged over 100. In order to engender as much of a Purim festive atmosphere as possible, we will I am sure be bringing in groups of young children and organising parties and other entertainments for our residents around this time. And wherever possible we will involve our staff in this very upbeat and joyous Festival.

As indicated previously not all residents who come to live at Nightingale are necessarily Orthodox and/or have any interest in all of the Festivals. But nevertheless we endeavour to try our best to make all of our celebrations as inclusive as possible. The important thing is that we recognise that any of our residents have the right, should they so wish, not to participate. There is no element whatsoever of compulsion to do so.

It’s interesting nevertheless that a significant number of our residents who have not perhaps attended synagogue regularly or at all have chosen to do so here at Nightingale. We recognise that this is much to do with the following of our charismatic Religious Coordinator, Rafi Fuchs – many of our residents attend synagogue simply because of him! Whatever the reason, this has to be good news. Attending synagogue at Nightingale is both an enjoyable experience as well as providing a reminiscence experience. Many residents will of course have been exposed to synagogue attendance and religious services in their lives – even if they may not have done so in more recent years or as adults.