Just wanted to hear from our Jewish fam on the first night of Hanukkah! Tell us how you will be celebrating this. Do you have family traditionals? What all is involved with this sacred week or so?
Come for the tea. Stay for the shade.
Come for the tea. Stay for the shade.
Just wanted to hear from our Jewish fam on the first night of Hanukkah! Tell us how you will be celebrating this. Do you have family traditionals? What all is involved with this sacred week or so?
Thanks for thinking of us. This isn’t really a “sacred” week. Hanukkah appears in the Talmud, but it does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, having taken place after the Bible was written.
I’ll be going downstairs shortly to light the candles with my son. (My husband’s not Hewish, so he doesn’t participate.) We each have our own menorah. We’ll say the blessings (three on the 1st night—two the rest) and then our tradition is to sing “I had a little dreidel.” The twist is that each night we add a made-up verse. My son supplies the noun and I make up a verse on the spot. For example: “I had a little dreidel, I made it out of gold, but when I went to spin it, it was covered with mold.” By the last night, we sing the original verse and eight others. He’ll open a present each night. When he was a child, I had a collection of Hanukkah stories books, such as “Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins” and I read one each night. There’s a bowl in the living room of chocolate Hanukkah gelt, which I mostly avoid, but it’s been out since the beginning of the month and my husband and son have been eating it like it’s going out of style. The consumption of potato latkes may take place, but I haven’t purchased any yet. Wishing a Happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates!
Shari, thank you for sharing your traditions. I like potato pancakes, which sound similar to latkes.
Happy Hanukkah to you and your family.
Thank you for your good wishes.
Your tradition sounds fabulous! Thank you for sharing. As an atheist I love hearing about what different religions do, not textbook explanations but REAL people. I love it so much! Happy Holidays!
My polish born baba would stand in the kitchen just continously making potato pancakes. She would bring stacks of them to the table and keep cooking. I don’t know if she ever ate one hot in her life but all of the grandkids devoured them
It’s a lovely tradition that we do alongside Christmas my husband is kinda nothing and I’m Jewish. We light the menorah and eat latkahs and enjoy the family- then do Christmas!
Thank you, Tamara! It’s true that Chanukah (the spelling I learned growing up) is not a “major” holiday, but seemed to gain in importance because it occurs so close to Christmas. As I moved cross country away from my family, I do not celebrate it at all. I do like the tradition of the menorah lighting, but Chanukah always sneaks up on me so I don’t have the candles. I do have several Jewish friends who do celebrate, but it’s mainly a holiday for kids and I chose not to have those. Happy Chanukah to those who celebrate!
Happy Hannukah ✡💙✡ to all. My husband and I light the menorah and pray. It’s just us and the kitty Lonzo.
I’m not Jewish but watched Hannukah an Rye on the Hallmark Chanell. It was good.
Happy Chanukah! Though it isn’t a “serious” holiday, it is a festival that celebrates family and community–a shared faith and history. I love that it’s all about the light, doubtless grounded in the winter solstice, but also the light of faith and optimism for the future. The story behind Chanukah involves revolt, war, fighting a totalitarian government for the right to practice religion, and that has been minimized over the past years.
In my family we light the Chanukah menorahs every night. We have many menorahs, some made by our kids, some gifts from Israel. I gave my granddaughter a brightly colored children’s menorah for her 2nd birthday. We do a Zoom candle lighting since we’re all over the country. After the prayers, we sing “Ma’or Tzor,” a song about faith in God. It was my dad’s favorite and it always brings back good memories. We give gifts to the children and eat potato latkes. Sometimes we also buy sufganiyot, jelly-filled donut-like pastries that are fried in oil that are very popular in Israel. Technically, anything fried in oil can be considered a Chanukah food. It’s all about the miracle of the oil for the lamp in the Synagogue, only enough for one day, lasting eight days. My granddaughter loves playing dreidl and I have a big bowl of dreidls for her to choose from.
In addition to gift giving we also put money aside for “tzedukah,” giving to those in need. We talk about where to give the money, where it will make a difference. Usually we give to a local children’s organization or buy groceries for our local food bank. It’s not a lot of money, but hopefully it’s a part of the holiday that will remain with our children.
Thanks for sharing this Emma, it was a very interesting read. What a lovely family you have.
This makes my heart so happy to read this.
I’ll be doing a Zoom menorah lighting one night this week with one of my best friends who lives about a 90-minute drive from me. Born a Catholic, she met the love of her life, who was Jewish (he died of Parkinson’s during Hanukkah in 2020) 12 years ago. They celebrated Hanukkah together every year. She now considers herself to be (in this order): Jewish, Buddhist and then Christian. It’s really important for me to help her feel that she’s not alone during the holidays
You are a great friend 😊
We love Patato Pancakes and the lights but it makes up remember how we got our Freedom