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Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Following the yellow arrow road ten years on

27th October 202527th October 2025 funtime65

You spend a week on 100kms on The Way then find yourself following the yellow arrow road ten years on.

Actor and trekker Robson Green is the latest to put his boots on and head for Santiago de Compostella.

For his World’s Most Amazing Walks series for British TV channel U&Yesterday.

And share his Camino, which, of course, is his own.

There were touch points we recognise from our CaminoWays odyssey.

The passport, the pulpo, or octopus, and the cathedral botafumeiro incense holder.

As he traversed his way across Galicia from O Cebreiro to St James the Greater’s remains in Santiago de Compostella.

But because every day is an education on the Camino we learned some stuff we’d missed back then.

And they were all yellow

Such as the derivation of the yellow arrow symbol.

We already know why peregrinos, or pilgrims. wear scallop shells on their backpacks.

Although we prefer the more lyrical explanation, which he didn’t share, which is that James was carried ashore on clamshells.

But we just imagined that the yellow arrows which guide even the most accidental of tourists, to their destination.

That it was a Galician or Spanish Tourist Board signpost.

Starting out from O Cebreiro, of course, Robson, immediately learned that it was the handiwork of its most famous citizen.

Father Elias Valina, who stocked with an inordinate amount of yellow paint took off on his travels in 1984.

Along the French Way daubing yellow arrows everywhere to help peregrinos.

And you’ll be thankful to the padre for keeping you on the straight and narrow.

The big cheese

Armed with this knowledge Robson drops by, among other high points, a Queso Tetilla cheese in the shape of a booby.

The reason for it, the great storyteller keeps until the end of his trek in the great cathedral itself.

Which, Robson would be aghast if we spoiled.

Walking in his footsteps

Does my ass look big? We’re all peregrinos

The Geordie starts out his eight-part series in his backyard of the north-east of England.

Walking across to the other coast along the 2,000-year-old Hadrian’s Wall.

Before taking in the Danube River, along the Wachau Valley in Austria.

The north coast of Normandy, to the D-Day landings beaches.

The Great Glen Way through the Scottish Highlands, from the foot of Ben Nevis to Loch Ness.

Where eagles draw: The Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Austria

The Douro Valley in Portugal, the Jurassic Coast on England’s south coast, complete with Sea-Rex.

And after his Camino odyssey, the Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Poland.

A 100-mile route connecting a group of medieval castles perched across the limestone highlands.

Of course, through the miracle of modern technology I started my journey at episode seven and the Camino.

And one of our own

I am, of course, binge watching the rest and will break it to The Scary One that that is our mission for our Sixties.

To complete all of Robson’s treks, and more, not least our own neighbourhood walk, the John Muir Way.

And surprise my old walking companion, Wendy the Wasp Whisperer on the tenth anniversary of our misadventures this month.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

God is a biker

23rd September 2025 funtime65

How do you know God is a biker, well, The Lord was with Joshua and his Triumph was heard throughout the land.

An old fave which has no doubt been doing the rounds, at the Blessings of the Helmets at the Marian pilgrimage in Fatima.

Now in its tenth year, some 180,000 bikers descended on the Northern Portuguese city.

To have their helmets blessed.

And to raise money and awareness for the 9,900 bikers in accidents in the country and victims of the country’s forest fires.

Pilgrims make their way to Fatima by planes, trains and automobiles, and we’d recommend Jose Madomis’s guided tour.

Which we would have seen for ourselves if only we had visited a couple of weeks later.

Our calling

It was less God’s calling, we think, rather than just space in the work calendar, which meant we visited one early September.

And met the niece of one of the Three Little Shepherds.

On her own porch and joined in the Lord’s Prayer.

This little light of mine

Now if the Lord moves in mysterious ways then pilgrims to Fatima do as well.

All with the same aim to make their own way to the main altar.

Which is what one senior citizen, and we dare say not the only one.

On her hands and her knees in supplication to Our Lady and Our Lord.

And to get the best slot for the Night-time Candle Procession.

Only the blessings are shared equally around.

Whether a Little Shepherd, a Little Biker or a Little Old Woman.

Pilgrims arrive in Fatima, as we say, by all modes of transport but we flew in with Ryanair to Lisbon.

And why not check out Portugal Centro too which Jose, our Special One, has been specially endowed with God’s favours and blessings.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

See the Heavens above the Vatican

4th August 20254th August 2025 funtime65

And a tip from the Land of the USSea, where to go to see the Heavens above the Vatican.

The Papacy has walked a fine line through history.

Between the often irresolvable powerhouses of religion and science.

With the great astronomer Galileo Galilei the highest profile victim of the Medieval church’s intransigence.

Of course, the Pope and his people have long been looking upwards for answers.

After all that’s where the Big Boss lives and works.

Observe the observatory

Galileo magnifico: The famous astronomer

Few of us are aware though that the Papacy actually has a dedicated observatory.

In the Pope’s summer house, south of Rome, once the residence of the Emperor Domitian.

But fave cuz in Washington DC does and the New Yorker does and now we does.

And as with many of the advances in the modern-day Papacy we owe our access to the big telescopes to the late, great Pope Francis.

Who opted to forego the summer residence enjoyed by previous pontiffs and instead turned it into a museum.

And so next time you visit La Citta Eterna and you have time, and you won’t, but you should make it.

Then visit the 17th-century palazzo in Castel Gandolfo, about fifteen miles south of Rome, all booked on your Vatican Museums site.

Which overlooks a volcanic lake and is surrounded by terraced gardens.

And where you will be given a 60-minute tour in two floors of the observatory building.

Plus visits to the domes of the historic Carte du Ciel telescope and the Schmidt Telescope, the site of St. Pope Paul VI’s address to the Apollo astronauts on the Moon in 1969.

Hands across the ocean

Castel Gandolfo is also home to Vatican Observatory founded in 1891.

Where Chicagoan Fr Bob, or Da Pope as we now know him. has the benefit of another MidWestern homeboy.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Detroit-born director of the observatory who heads a group of 15 fellow friars.

Outta Arizona, a state that offers a remote mountain environment sans the light-polluted suburbs of Rome.

The Mt. Graham International Observatory, near Tucson.

Where the Vatican installed a $4m telescope and an astrophysics facility.

Together known as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or vatt.

And vatt’s not all folks, Brother Guy’s explorations have spread to another continent still, Antarctica.

In his meteor research.

While Castel Gandoldo also boasts one of the world’s greatest curations, bequeathed by French nobleman, the Marquis de Mauroy.

And looks even beyond the Earth and the Heavens.

Uncovering a rare meteorite, known as Chassigny, whose chemical composition suggests it hails from Mars.

The Pope’s Astronomer

Now the Pope’s Astronomer clearly has a brain the size of a planet and he fills it with deuteronomy and, er, science fiction.

All of which only encourages people to ask him for evidence of the Star over Bethlehem… and believers will point to stellar movements of the day.

Brother Guy, of course, sees them all coming, and his answers can, er, be Jesuitical.

With a memorable conclusion: “Even scientists who don’t believe in God have to believe in ‘Oh, my God.’ ”

Now we can’t promise you’ll meet Brother Guy when you wash up at Castel Gandoldo.

But you will see the Heavens above the Vatican… in imagination, faith and science.

Countries, Ireland, Pilgrimage, UK

Bruce, the Scottish and Irish Lions and a united Celtland

18th July 2025 funtime65

And for the weekend that’s in it an opportunity to mark Bruce, the Scottish and Irish Lions and a united Celtland.

Because what we don’t get taught in school is that Scotland and Ireland were indeed united for what must have been three glorious years.

Under the banner of Edward Bruce from 1315-1318.

And you might be familiar with his brother Robert, the King of the Scots, aka Chris Pine,

An alternative future

Edward Bruce’s reign may have been short lived but it offered a tantalising look into an alternative future.

For these Celtic peoples and indeed the Norman Anglo-Irish and their descendants.

Of course, for these weeks in this the year of the Lord 2015.

On sporting fields a thousand miles away in a different colony, Australis, we are all one team.

A British and Irish Lions rugby union select.

And woe betide anyone who abbreviates that to British Lions.

Or worse as in the case of passport pilferer Tony Cascarino who miscalled the elite combo England despite representing Ireland.

My noble bloodline

Now thanks to the excellent Sky History Channel and your favourite blogger’s obsessive interest in the past.

We can relive the days After Braveheart when Scotland and Ireland mastered perfidious Albion.

While the might of the English (and entrapped Welsh) armies and the British Empire colonised Ireland for 700 years.

The Irish and the Scots have managed to stay close through bloodlines.

With this descendant of Irish and Scots stock.

As a Murty, a direct descendant of the High King Muirchertach of Brian Boru’s blood.

And I’m not making this up!

And say an Ave there for me

And so if Edward Bruce’s name was not writ large in English-told history it does not mean we cannot honour him here.

Or point historians, patriots or those who just like a good story to his plot.

At Faughart Cemetery, near Dundalk in County Louth.

Near the modern lines of a border between the North and South of the island of Ireland.

We’re sure his spirit will welcome any of a Scots and Irish set who pays a pilgrimage and says a prayer.

And celebrates Bruce, the Scottish and Irish Lions and a united Celtland.

America, Countries, Pilgrimage

Sweet Rome Chicago

9th May 20259th May 2025 funtime65

And as £1.4 billion Catholic eyes turn their gaze to the Windy City why all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago.

Because Cardinal Robert Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as we now know him, hails from what could now be tagged the Holy City too.

That Chicago of all the cities in the world should be chosen to produce the 267th Pontiff is, of course, God’s calling.

But he has long cast his blessings on the great city of the Mid West since its first French Catholic settlement in the 1690s.

And our new Papa has French blood running through him and Italian and Spanish.

The Holy Ground

We recommend the locally-released documentary Holy Ground for those who want to delve deeper into Chicago Catholicism.

And we are grateful too to Chicago Catholic for helping us see the light.

Better still find yourself in Chicago as we will, God willing, next month.

Bless you all: Chicago’s most famous son, Robert Prevost

And will now seek out the Queen of All Saints church in Sauganash.

Where the worshippers have dedicated a stained-glass window to favourite son, Billy Caldwell, the very same Chief Sauganash.

That he has had the thriving southern neighbourhood of Sauganash named for him is testament to his contribution.

Hail to the Chief Sauganash

Two tribes: Billy Caldwell/Chief Sauganash

The son of a Scots-Irishman (all the best people are) and a Mohawk or Shawnee woman Caldwell championed the indigenous tribes.

The Potawatomi people who would populate the Chicago area.

Chicago Catholic marks the year 1833 as pivotal in the church’s story.

When Robert Prevost would have been but a twinkle in his great-grandfather’s eye.

The annus mirabilis 1833 marks the incorporation of Chicago as a town and the creation of its first parish, Old St. Mary’s.

The explosion of Catholic Chicago when because of its positioning in the Mid West it became a transport hub.

And a destination of choice for immigrants from the Old World.

With more parishes built to serve immigrant communities and outlying or daughter parishes.

Sky’s the limit

Chicago has long prided itself as the home of the skyscraper.

And like every other visitor we stand out among the locals for looking up.

But look between the soaring temples to consumerism, hospitality and business.

And you will see another history of Chicago, its ornate steeples.

And perhaps too, St Mary of the Assumption Parish on 137th Street in Riverside in South Chicago.

It may be a shell now of what it was but a stained glass window remains which a young Robert Prevost would have lost himself in.

The boy who would become Pope Leo XIV, the first Pontiff from the USA, now has a rather grander Vatican church from which to worship.

But all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Pure selfiesness of Insta Papal pics

25th April 202525th April 2025 funtime65

They look unthreatening but we wouldn’t advise challenging the Swiss Guards tackling the pure selfiesness of Insta Papal pics.

It would, of course, be too much to expect that people would respect Francis’s dignity.

By desisting from stealing a selfie with the Pope as he lies in state in St Peter’s Basilica.

And I can’t imagine my mum’s cousins, monks and nuns.

All in the same family, copying the sisters with mobiles at the Pope’s casket.

Processing the processions

Whatever the rights and wrongs of processions to visit a dignitary as they lie in state.

And we would argue that it elicits a gawkishness or overdeference among those who stand for hours to worship at a mortal’s feet.

Whether that be a queen, a president or a pope.

It must be wrong that the great modern icon of Insta-gratification has come to overrule normal rules and conventions.

And we won’t even get started at those who smile inanely at the gates of Auschwitz and other Holocaust or dark tourist sites.

World turns off its phones

Stick to this: The Beefeaters at the Tower of London

Back in the Vatican the Swiss Guards and Polizie have for now not brought the full force of the law down on the miscreants.

But the tide is turning around the world against the Insta-social behaviour which is ruining our visitors experiences.

At the moment the ban on selfies has been restricted to matters of safety and security.

And so visitors are forbidden from taking selfies, photos or videos in the Jewel House of the Tower of London where the Crown Jewels are kept.

The big beasts

No bull: Selfies are banned at the Running of the Bulls

Elsewhere it’s animals’ safety that is the consideration.

Theirs and ours with pics with the big cats ruled out in the zoos and circuses of New York.

And photos with bears are a no-no in Lake Tahoe in California.

Although the authorities would probably be best just letting the grizzlies enforce the law for them.

With some humans instinctively averse to boundaries the rules have to be laid down for them.

And so, and think about, the authorities have had to legislate against selfies at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.

Respect for religion

Now while that adrenaline rush is an athletic pilgrimage our spiritual odysseys also need protecting.

And the Islamic world does it best with the ban on selfies on the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Pilgrims only have a short time left in the snaking queue before the casket is closed tonight on the Pope.

Before his funeral tomorrow and Francis gets some peace from the throngs.

And the pure selfiesness of Insta Papal pics.

Countries, Deals, Europe, Pilgrimage

In Francis’s footsteps in Rome and Assisi

1st April 20251st April 2025 funtime65

It’s timely in a Jubilee Year for the Catholic Church and the Pope’s failing health that groups heading in Francis’s footsteps in Rome and Assisi are putting the call out to pilgrims.

Of which I have been one and need to be again.

Barter’s Travelnet have put together a seven-day programme under the spiritual guidance of Canon Martin Keohane.

Leaving from God’s own country Ireland and the most special bit of it, according to my old Corkonian pals.

Pilgrims’ progress

The holy of holies. At the end of the Francigena in Rome

You’ll leave Cork on June 13 before being taken to Rome Hotel.

The first full day you’ll be taken on a guided tour of St Peter’s Basilica and its Holy Door.

Before getting time off for good behaviour after lunch.

And refuel well because next up is a walking tour of Rome, visiting the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona.

Day 3 involves one of the real highlights of any trip to the Vatican, a Papal Audience (depending on the Pope’s schedule).

Y0u’ll have worked out by now that holy doors are staple diet on this pilgrimage and your visit to St John Lateran Basilica comes with one as does St Mary Major’s Basilica.

Day 4 sees a special visit to the Catacombs of St Callixtus and St Paul’s Outside the Walls and you guessed it, its Holy Door.

This magnificent Basilica once being the largest in the world. The sarcophagus of St Paul is now visible since the 2008 excavations.

Francis then Assisi

Rome wasn’t seen in a day and not even four days is enough but it’s time to depart for Assisi, a travelling day.

Your guide will treat you to a walking tour of the main sights of the medieval town of Assisi the next day.

With a visit to the Basilica of St. Francis and checking in on the Basilica of St Clare, foundress of the Order of the Poor Clares.

Your penultimate day we will be spent in Cascia and Roccaporena (weather permitting) which you’ll know as the birthplace of St Rita.

Before returning to Assisi for dinner and overnight and then the last day on your way back to Rome Airport and your flight back to Cork.

All blessed and holy having followed in Francis’s footsteps in Rome and Assisi.

Deal us in

All of which boiled down means…

Inclusions

Air travel ex Cork to Rome return on the services of Ryanair.
20kg luggage per person.
4 nights accommodation – Torino Hotel Rome on B&B Basis and 3 nights accommodation – Cristallo Hotel Assisi on Half Board basis
Guided visits in Rome as per the Itinerary.
Guided visits in Assisi as per the Itinerary.
City taxes.
Accompanied by Representative of Barter’s Travelnet.

Exclusions

Single room supplement: €395.00 for duration. Single rooms are very scarce and are on a first come first served basis.
Insurance: €50.00 per person.
Meals where not specified.
Drinks at meals.
Tips.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

The Romani Diaspora never forget

15th March 202517th March 2025 funtime65

The Romani Diaspora never forget though few us even know of their holocaust and only rub shoulders with gypsies on our travels when they entertain for us.

Gypsy music evenings we find in our loveholidays travel pack are a feature of Hungarian holidays while for a daily dose of traditional music it can be found in the Central Market Hall in Budapest.

Where, of course, I was dragged as a trade-off for my history binge in the Hungarian capital.

Pride of place above the food and merch stalls, and word to the wise the Hungarians love a tin of goose liver and a Russian doll with Putin and miniature Vlads, is Fakanal Etterem restaurant.

Spell it out: The Fakanel Etterem restuarant

Where we refuel after a day pounding the streets,

After a morning in the Budapest baths with our food du jour goulash.

And listen to the lunchtime entertainment, a gypsy trio.

Just as Margaret Thatcher, George HW Bush, the Emperor of Japan and Princess Diana had done before us.

And that would have been some dinner party although we suspect they weren’t all there at the same time.

A gypsy trio

Now our troupe clearly had their tourist audience down pat.

With the violinist asking each table where they were from and tailoring his tunes to their country of origin.

With the French getting La Vie en Rose and in the absence of a Japanese tune the staple Blue Danube for our eastern friends.

Gypsy songs like every tradition the world over harks back to history.

And while our Fakanal Etterem trio lift our spirits with their toe-tapping tunes.

They equally will have laments for those we celebrate this year on the 80th anniversary of the Romani Holocaust.

Romani Resistance Day

And reflect on an act of unimagined bravery and the Romani uprising against their overlords in Auschwitz.

When on 15 May 1944, 600 Roma prisoners from the 6000 then in the camp defied their guards who were planning to execute them all.

Instead they barricaded themselves into their barracks.

With hammers, pickaxes and shovels they had gathered after breaking into the equipment warehouse.

It was the bravest of resistances and no gypsies were gassed that day.

The Nazis responded by moving half of the prisoners to other camps and gassing the remaining 3,000.

All of which is commemorated on May 16, Romani Resistance Day.

What we all share

And which the Son and Heir who was invited out to Auschwitz last year to observe the commemorations learned from the community.

There is, of course, much to learn from reaching out beyond our own circle.

As I found first-hand when I found that I was actually booked to travel with a gypsy party on a Topflight working assignment.

To Marian site Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

And came away with a whole new understanding of a community which has been maligned and alienated.

The Romani Diaspora never forget though.

Nor those of us who reach out and share what we all do, music, faith and compassion.

Countries, Pilgrimage, UK

A cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day

1st March 202517th March 2025 funtime65

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus and a cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day.

Which, of course, is a hug rather than a cupboard.

Although perhaps you’re more in need of a press, so take it how you will.

That the Welsh celebrate St David as their patron saint is only natural as he is a proud mab Cymrum, of son of Wales with a song in his heart.

And the only saint from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland to come from the country where they are celebrated.

All the Saints

The apostle St Andrew hailing from Judea and never having visited Caledonia, the Romans’ name for our bit of modern-day Britain.

And his connection deriving from some part of him having come here by a missionary.

And some tired and probably drunken Scots chieftain mistaking a white cross and a blue background in the sky as a sign.

Andrew having been crucified on an ‘X’ cross.

How Turk St George came to be placed with killing a dragon.

On the flat-topped Dragon Hill in Uffington, Berkshire, is anybody’s guess.

Although again we suspect drink was taken, urged on, of course, by returning Crusaders from the Holy Land where his legend loomed large.

St Paddy, meanwhile, may have come to represent all that is Irish but he was born and reared in modern-day English Lake District, then Wales.

Before being kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he drove out the snakes.

Although the standing joke is that they returned and sit in the country’s parliament, the Dail.

In St David’s footsteps

David’s den: St Davids Day and his church

All of which tour around the islands brings us back to the day that’s in it and where is best to track St David’s footsteps.

Well, that would be St Davids in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, or the top of the pig’s head.

Now St David’s, on the coast, has welcomed worshippers to his church since the 6th century when David walked among them.

It became a popular medieval pilgrimage site and two trips to St Davids was considered equal to one to Rome itself.

These days it’s part of the Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way which you can join any time, but best of all to reach here on St David’s Day.

As is the way with ancient cathedrals the real history lies in the library.

And here you can study collections belonging to deans, bishops and clergy dating back to the 16th century.

Read all about it

The library also holds a collection of local and cathedral photographs dating back to the 19th century and the Parish Registers.

Now for the day that’s in we leave the last words to David.

A gwnewch y pethau bychain a welsoch ac a glywsoch gennyf i.

Which, of course, mean be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.

We’re always happy to add to our knowledge.

And will regale all we meet the next time we’re in Wales.

Along with a cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day.

How to get there

St Davids is 116 miles west of Cardiff and two and a half hours by car.

Or 180 miles south of ferry terminal Holyhead or four and a half hours by your vehicle.

We’d recommend though the Pilgrim Way.

It is a 162-mile journey with nearly 80 miles winding through County Wexford from Ferns to Rosslare.

Then the 80-mile crossing over the Irish Sea with Irish Ferries.

And a 45-mile walk on the beautiful Pembrokeshire National Park Coast Path to St Davids.

Africa, Asia, Central America, Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Celebrating Jesus and a Happy Hanukkha

29th December 2024 funtime65

As Christmas and the Festival of Lights coincide only four times a century this year we’re celebrating Jesus and a Happy Hanukkah.

If the prophecies were right then it was on Kislev 25, 3757, or 5BC, that the Light of the World emerged.

Six hundred years after the Maccabi recovered Jerusalem and the Second Temple was rededicated.

Jesus being a Jew he would naturally have celebrated Hanukkah with Mary, Joseph and his siblngs.

And the Gospel of St John cites Jesus in the temple telling Jews: ‘I and the Father are one.’

Hanukkah holidays

All of which Sabbath lesson for the day brings us round to Hanukkah holidays.

Now the good news is that they last eight days, roughly the same time frame as your average family holiday.

Jewish families, and friends, have been gathering to light one additional candle in the menorah multibranched candelabra.

To replicate the actions of the Maccabi in entering the temple way back then when they made a little oil go a long, long way.

Diaspora around world

Now the Jewish diaspora has led to slight variations on the agreed customs.

So look out in your part of the world, and bear in mind that just like the Irish and the Scots Jews have enriched the whole planet.

We are grateful here to our friends at Reform Judaism for sharing some of the differences from near and far.

Which we will give you a tchotchke, or trinket of, to impress your Jewish pals.

Aleppo to Africa

Now Syrians of all shades and faiths don’t have their troubles to seek but Syrian Jews have long been resilient to the challenges.

The Jews of Aleppo descend from Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

They light an additional shamash (helper candle) on Hanukkah as a sign of thanks.

And in solidarity with refugees who have fled their homes in search of shelter and peace.

And for Kurds they have a take on the giving of Hanukkah gelt, but with a twist.

A week before the holiday, children lock the doors to their rooms and their parents must give them coins to get in!

More is always more in exotic Morocco and they have a ninth day where children collect leftover candles.

They then throw them on a bonfire where the grown-ups jump over them and wish for a partner or to get pregnant.

Vin and games

It’s not surprising to find French Jews blend in the country’s vintage into their customs.

With the celebrants of Avignon ending the Shabbat that falls during Hanukkah by opening a new bottle or cask of wine.

After Havdalah, the end of Shanbat, Jews travel the neighborhood to various homes, tasting the wines and toasting the holiday.

Similarly Mexicans blend in local mores to their celebrations, in their games.

And often break a dreidel-shaped piñata filled with Hanukkah trinkets and treats.

In the Promised Land

Of course, every Jew would want to be in The Promised Land for Hanukkah.

Cantor Evan Kent eulogises about Hanukkah as every pleasure is multiplied as opposed to the sacrifice of other holy days.

And particularly ‘the sufganiyot which help the atmosphere as it’s impossible to be in a bad mood while eating a jelly donut.’

And who’s to say a certain Nazarene carpenter 2,000 years ago didn’t do the same with his family.

Worth thinking about as we join in celebrating Jesus and a Happy Hanukkah.