As I do every year with my Advent, I devote a day to Hanukkah. Tonight will mark the first night of the Jewish holiday and this year with what is happening in Israel, I hope that despite your political feelings, you'll understand that I celebrate the holiday due to my wife's heritage. Tonight's post isn't to infuriate but to celebrate. And to remember...
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The school I went to for grades 1-5 had an annual Christmas pageant. The theme every year was 'Christmases Around the World'. First grade celebrated Mexico. I think third grade was England. One grade did Sweden, because I remember that every year one girl would dress as Saint Lucy and walk around the stage with lit candles in her hair. But the grade everybody wanted to be in for the program was fifth grade as that was the year you'd celebrate Hanukkah.
All of the girls in that class would sing the Dreidel Song while all the boys got to participate in the most holiday of activities- gambling! Let's face it. The dreidel game is a gateway drug to betting on sports and playing cards for money. Each boy would get a handful of chocolate coins covered in gold foil called gelts. Then in groups of 4, while the girls sang, we'd play dreidel for the coins. And we got to keep AND eat what we won!
The rules of the game are simple and not much is needed to play. But if you don't have a dreidel, then you're pretty much out of luck.
There are 4 sides to the dreidel with a Hebrew symbol on each face. After each participant puts a gelt into the pot, a player spins the top. If it lands with nun facing up, the player gets nothing and the next turn starts. Everyone antes up before each spin. If player #2 spins a gimel, he wins all the candy in the pot. If they spin hei, they win half of the pot. If they spin shin, they have to add another gelt to the pot. You basically play until somebody wins all the gelts or in the case of our holiday show, until the song stops. I don't remember how much I won. But I know that for the rest of the program, I was snacking on chocolate.
Gelts are a requirement in our household during Hanukkah. Not that my wife plays dreidel. Heck, I don't even think we have a dreidel anywhere in our house. It's become a tradition because her grandmother would gift her a bag of the chocolates every year and though Jan didn't understand the meaning behind the confections back then, it's been a way for us to keep her few Hanukkah traditions alive.
As my Advent gift for you today, here's a kid friendly version of The Dreidel Song. As mentioned in the song, some children make it out of clay. If you'd like to add a crafty element to your holidays this year in a way that explores other cultures, I've added a second video of how to make a dreidel using air dried clay from Crayola.
Enjoy them both!
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