Celebrate the Jewish Holiday of Lag B’Omer with Watain
Shalom! Today is the Jewish holiday known as Lag B’Omer. Since the only Jewish holidays the general population knows are Passover, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur*, I am going to assume you need this Wikipedia explanation of the holiday:
“This day marks the hillula (celebration, interpreted by some as anniversary of death) of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a Mishnaic sage and leading disciple of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century, and the day on which he revealed the deepest secrets of kabbalah in the form of the Zohar (Book of Splendor), a landmark text of Jewish mysticism. This association has spawned several well-known customs and practices on Lag BaOmer, including the lighting of bonfires, pilgrimages to the tomb of Bar Yochai in the northern Israeli town of Meron, and various customs at the tomb itself.”
To celebrate the day in 2010 (5770 in the Jewish calendar), reader Josh K. made the below video, which sets footage of Hasidic men celebrating Lag B’Omer to a soundtrack of Watain’s “Stellarvore,” and in 2015 (5774 in the Jewish calendar), reader Josh K. shared that video with us. I should probably be offended by the fact that the video consequently suggests that the God of the Jewish faith is the “God of Death” and the “God of Doom,” but I’m honestly just relieved Josh didn’t equate him with the “God of Accounting” or the “God of xxx” or whatever.
*And let’s be real, most of the general population doesn’t know why the Jews celebrate Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.**
**And let’s be real, there’s a ton of goyim who have never put together the connection between Passover that Charlton Heston movie TBS shows every year around Easter.
