Channukah fest?

[cimorene]

It just occurred to me that I'd love to see a Channukah fic exchange that was actually supposed to somehow incorporate Channukah, in some way. Is there such a thing? Is there interest in such a thing? Is there an appropriate community, somewhere, for raising the topic for discussion?

I say this because of the recent discussion of non-Western fandoms for Yuletide which reminded me of the whole Yuletide, other Christmas exchanges, and non-Christians thing - especially the ongoing issue of invisibly!Jewish characters (especially those who seem obviously Jewish and are played by Jewish actors, but staunchly from defended from all accusations of Jewishness by fans who seem passionately motivated, perhaps offended, and demand that everyone be Christian until proven otherwise).

Comments

[sofiaviolet]

I don't write fic, but I could totally get behind this.

Random person commenting here.

[takemyrevolution]

I think that's a nice idea. Unfortunately, as I am not Jewish, writing Channukah fic would call for some serious research as I wouldn't want to get it wrong. (In one of my original stories I have a character who is Jewish. I'm going to have to ask my friend Shala an awful lot of questions before I'll feel confident writing him.)

Also, I can't think of any Jewish characters in any of the fandoms I'm in. I don't watch television anymore and I'm mostly into anime.

Personally, I'd like to see a Winter Solstice exchange. I don't see a lot of pagans or pagan holidays in fan fiction. But then, I don't see a lot of pagan characters... in anything... ever.

As for an appropriate community... Is there not a community for non-Christian holiday fic exchanges or challenges? I don't mean to sound anti-Christian or anything, I'd just like to see a little more diversity in fan fiction. Also, it would be nice to have a community to help people who want to write about a holiday/religion/culture other than their own.

Re: Random person commenting here.

[cimorene]

I wouldn't mind simply making characters Jewish, and anyway, religion is often invisible, so it's no stranger than making them gay. Besides which, it's not necessary for the BSOs to be Jewish in order for Channukah to come up in the story. People have encounters with other people for that.

Sad as it is, I think a single community for non-Christian holidays might be more commensurate with the size of available interest for such than individual communities for each holiday. As far as I know, no such community exists, right now.

[msilverstar]

I know what you mean about the disconnect between traditional Christmas and fandom. So now the lotrips slashababy is now a New Year's fic exchange. Once someone brought it up, I realized how little I like the Santa business, and it's good to give people "extra" time to finish their stories.

[vass]

Days of Awesome would be an appropriate community to bring it up, I think.