Israel's Memorial Day and Independence Day - a unique experience

As many of you know, I grew up in the States, where Memorial Day means BBQs and sales, and the Fourth of July (Independence Day) means more BBQs and fireworks. In America, the two holidays are a few months apart. Not so in Israel.

yob 0379 large wa sJUHm 15767

I wanted to share some of the highlights of my experience with you.

Tuesday night began Yom HaZikaron - Day of Remembrance. I had an eery thought as I walked home from school that afternoon. I noticed a man carrying a bundle of flowers home. Usually if I see this (especially on Friday afternoons before Shabbat starts), I think to myself "I wonder who the lucky woman is?", and that thought is usually followed by, "gee, I wish someone would bring me flowers!" But at that moment, all I could do was wonder whose grave those flowers were going to be placed on the following day.

The day began with a 1 minute siren through the whole country, where everyone stood for a moment of silence. Most people were at a memorial ceremony of some sort. And most people wear white. I went to a high school ceremony that honored and remembered the forty-four graduates of their school that were killed while defending Israel. It was very touching. There were songs, poems, and stories. Each person was remembered individually, as two students carried a wreath bearing that person's name across the stage. Occasionally, non-students would carry the wreath and that was the hardest to watch, because it was usually the fallen soldier's parents, wife, children, or siblings.

On Wednesday morning I joined thousands and thousands of people at the nation's military cemetery, Har Herzl. Another siren blared at 11am, for two minutes. I was not quite at the cemetery by the time the siren had began. In fact, I was in the middle of walking through a busy intersection right outside of the cemetery. The area that had been chaotic and crazy a moment before, stop and stood at a stand still. It was very powerful to watch.

The picture that I've placed in the article is from ynetnews.com, and it is of the moment of the siren. Although the soldier saluting is probably what is supposed to be striking about, if you look beyond him, you can see a row of people standing next to their cars. You can see buses and cars stopped. A split second before the siren, these cars all had drivers in them and were rolling right along. Now life stood still.

I was worried that I would be less effected by this siren, because there had been one the previous night, one last week for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and one a few weeks ago as a practice. I'm grateful to say that I was definitely still moved! I was a little bit more able to look around and see all the people standing still - bus drivers who had gotten out of their buses, crossing guards and police officers who stood at attention, even little kids who stopped playing.

You can read more about peoples experiences with the day here, here, here, and you can see a video of people stopping for the siren here!

In the evening between Yom HaZikaron (Day of Remembering) and Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Independence Day), there is a moment of transition. We have to move from feeling the deep despair of remembering the over 22,000 people killed (over 1,200 of them were murdered in terrorist attacks), to being able to celebrate the fact that our State has been here for 60 years.

The State puts on a really beautiful and touching (although perhaps it could have been a little shorter? I wanted to party!) ceremony helping us move emotionally from memorial day to independence day. You can read about it here.

And Israel goes out and parties! I spent last night in downtown Jerusalem where it was one big non-stop party. If you wanted a light show, you had one. If you wanted music, you had that. If you wanted a sing-along of Israeli folk songs (which I did), you had that. And if you wanted to Israeli dance with thousands of other people (which I definitely did!), you had it. There was food, drinks, silly string, balloons, inflatable hammers to bop each other on the head, and lots of general happiness.

Today will be a day of family time, of BBQs, and of celebration. I'm heading up north with some friends for the rest of the holiday weekend. We will celebrate in traditional Israeli style with the grilled (charred?) meat and some hiking along one of Israel's many beautiful trails.