MUGI – My Unique Gift Idea

Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights starts on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar – which is a lunar calendar, similar to our own. This year it will start at sundown on Saturday, the 12th of December, and it will continue for eight days until sundown of Saturday the 19th of December.

The holiday is a celebration of a very special event in Jewish history. That is Israel’s defeat of the Greeks in the second century BCE. While Judah and the Maccabees, the Jewish warriors were able to defeat Antiochus IV in battle, the Greeks had entered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and desecrated it. After the war, when it became time to rekindle the Eternal Lamp, the High Priests in the Temple found only enough olive oil to burn for one day and night. Miraculously however, the olive oil burned for eight days and eight nights. This is the Miracle of Hanukkah and the reason why Jews celebrate the holiday.

Hanukkah is a fun celebration for young children and old children alike. Each day we light a new candle of the 9-branched Menorah. The ‘Shamash’ branch in the center stays lit the entire time, on day one we light the ‘Shamash’ and the candle on the far left side of the menorah. On day two, the ‘Shamash’ and the next two candles, and so on, until by the eighth day of Hanukkah, also called Zos Hanukkah, the entire menorah is lit up and radiating in the window or the entrance of the home.

Another fun Hanukkah tradition is spinning the dreidel. The dreidel is a four-sided spinning top. On each side is a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: ? (nun) ? (gimel) ? (HAY) )?shin) or on dreidels that are made in Israel, )?pey).

The acronym stands for the Hebrew, “?? ???? ??? ??” – which means “a great miracle was here”, or if you’re outside of Israel, “a great miracle was there.” Obviously it is referring to the miracle of light in the Hanukkah story.

Dreidel is a gambling game and we play for Hanukkah ‘gelt’ – special money that kids receive as a Hanukkah gift – but also chocolate coins may be used. Each player beings with an equal amount of gelt (usually 10-15). At the beginning of each round, every player puts one piece of gelt into the center ‘pot’. Each turn consists of one spinning of the dreidel, depending on which side is facing up when the dreidel stops spinning, a piece of gelt is gained or lost:
? do nothing
? take the whole pot
? take half of the pot
? or ? put a piece of gelt into the pot.

The last person to have any gelt wins the round.

Other Hanukkah traditions are eating delicious jelly donuts fried in oil called “sufganiyot“; and potato pancakes also fried in oil called “latkes”. The oil used in the food is a recollection of the miraculous olive oil found in the Temple in Jerusalem.