Please tell me about Hanukah

[cjorgensen]

Hi Everyone,

I am not Jewish, but this year I got curious about Hanukah. Please tell me about Hanukah. What is it about? What is the Hanukah story? How do you celebrate it? Do you have special Hanukah foods? What is the "Spirit of Hanukah"? Do you you have special Hanukah memories?

Thanks! And Happy Hanukah to your and your families. :wave:

[loft artist]

Its a bit like getting a $0.00 utility bill after a long cold winter ...A miracle !:wave:

[RoadLessTaken]

Okay.... I'm not Jewish either but I have dated many guys from Jewish families and have celebrated Hanukah many times over. I'll warn you though, my spelling will be horrible because I heard all about Hanukah through oral tradition.
The celebration of Hanukah is also known as the Celebration of Light. It began when the Jews were at war with the Macabees. The Macabees destroyed the Jewish temple wasting all of the oil that was so precious. There was only enough oil left to light the laterns for a single night but the lanterns stayed lit for a total of 8 nights, the 8 nights it took the Jews to reconstruct their temple.
For this reason oil is also celebrated at Hanukah and many of the foods used to celebrate Hanukah are deep fried like the potato pancakes..... no, I cannot spell the Jewish name for them!
Each night of Hanukah is celebrated by the lighting of the menorah. There are 9 candles on the menorah..... 8 representing the 8 nights of Hanukah and one candle used to light the others. Traditionally small gifts are exchanged during Hanukah.
Children play a game called Dreidel which is a top, first made of clay as the song goes. Children spin the Dreidel and the Hebrew letter that comes up means how many candy pieces the child win. The cadies are gelt... those gold chocolate coins we se at this time of year. The letters on the Dreidel stand for the first letter of each word in hebrew, "A Miracle happened here".
And that is pretty much my understanding of Hanukah.... oh, and also, the reason wht we see Hanukah spelled so many different ways is because the word is in hebrew and we don't have an exact English spelling so we attempt to spell a word using English letters which closely sound like the word in Hebrew.
Sheila aka RLT