Multi-cultural 101

More on Yom Kippur . . .

Carmella tells me that tomorrow a boy in her class--Ben-- will not be at school. It is because of that holiday, she explains.

Yom Kippur, I ask?

Yes.

Mom, she asks, is 25 hours like a whole day?

Yes. One day plus one hour.

Oh my God. That is so hard, she says. I am glad we are not Irish.

I correct her: Do you mean Jewish?

Right, Jewish . . . Irish. Jewish. Whatever. So they don't eat and they have to pray like this: mimes prayer and does some mumbling, looks very solemn

Something like that, I guess. I really don't know, I tell her. I am not Jewish. I've never been to synagogue. . .

So this praying and not eating holiday? Is it like a contest?

Sometimes you just don't have an answer but I can't wait until she asks about Hanukkah and I tell her they don't do Christmas. I think it will be almost as good as the time I told her she was going to lose all her baby teeth or even better, that time I told her she too would get old.