I want to learn everything I can to honor and celebrate Hanukkah each year. I want to teach my godchildren about Hanukkah as well. I would sincerely love to learn about this Jewish holiday and if there are any secular significance of the season like the secular significance of Christmas is shopping for gifts. I know gifts have something to do with it as well. Any homemade suggestions as well as suggestions that involve purchasing would be appreciated. Please enlightening me as much as you can (websites and all). I want to celebrate Hanukkah next year with my godchildren. Essentially, as implied, you could say its for educational purposes. Thank you in advance as I greatly appreciate it.
2006-12-19 13:40:12 · 16 answers · asked by Maria Gallercia 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Hanukkah
Christmas and Hanukkah are way diffrent people believe christ was born on christmas day but they are way wrong..
Hanukkah (years of reasearch) little history for ya. King Antiochus and the Syrians ruled over the land of Israel, the king tried to force the Jews to give up their religion, he seized the temple and put out the great seven branched menorah, but the jews led by Judah Maccabee fought back anf won a long battle against the wicked king. The jews cleaned the temple, they tried to light the lamp but there was only enough oil to light the lamp for one day a miracle happened and the oil lasted for eight days. Hanukkah is the festival of lights...
Hanukkah Food you can try: Potao latkes, jelly donuts, matzo balls etc, you light the menorah one candle for each night there is 8 nights.usually we have a bid dinner on the first night of hanukkah and then give small gifts on the last night we get our kids one big present and read to them about hanukkah,
There are alot of good books out there. I am not jewish but we celebrate all the jewish holidays.. Alot of the "christian" holidays are way to pagean and they have no clue what they are celebrating or why... You really need to research for yourself and see what you feel is right.
2006-12-21 06:27:39 · answer #1 · answered by Alexis221 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hanukkah is celebrated by lighting one candle on the Hanukiah (an eight-stemmed candelabrum) each day. The Hanukiah symbolises how God looked after the Jewish people at this difficult time. Games are often played at Hanukkah. The most common game uses a dreidel and is a popular way of helping children to remember the great miracle. I think it resembles with the Hindu festival of Lights , Diwali which too falls in November.
2016-05-22 22:46:00 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am a reform Jew, and here's some background and also what my family does.
Hanukkah has had many meanings/derivations over the centuries. The main ideas are that the maccabees (small and ill-equipped) were able to overpower a larger, better equipped army. In addition to this, there was a desecration at the temple, and the amount of 'holy' oil left to burn in the eternal flame, was only enough to burn for 1 night - yet it is told that it lasted for a full 8 nights. We light a menorah (also know as hannukiah), which has 8 arms, for the 8 nights, and a 9th one, usually at a different height, the shamash, or "servant" candle that is used to light the other candles. We play dreidel, which has 4 letters in hebrew in it - outside of Israel they are shin, hay, gimel, and nun which translate to "a great miracle happened there". In Israel, the shin is a pay, for "here" instead of "there".
Usually my entire extended family drive to my aunt's and get together for at least one night - 8 days means that you are guaranteed at least one weekend. We give each other gifts - that is a United States custom mostly, as the aforementioned secular Christmas commercialism has spread over. Traditionally people gave "gelt" - but now that has come to mean candy money, not real. We light the candles, sing some songs, play some dreidel, and eat many latkes! They are so good and easy to make (if you have a food processor!). My non-jewish friends have asked me if it was a "special" food or if they could make it anytime on their own - they liked it that much! It is a time of joyousness, and you are supposed to reflect on happy things, including flame - which my somewhat pyrophillic friends definately enjoy!
A nice thing to do with children is to make your own menorah - you can do this with play dough, real clay, wood, and many other things. It is a fun project to do, and I used to do as a child. Also fun - making dreidels, and also earning to spin them on their stems instead of their points!
2006-12-20 08:39:15 · answer #3 · answered by paddylvr 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
you sound a very sincere person, thus i will answer and the time is mid-night. the best way to celebrate is to go to one of your friendly synagogues (there are plenty around where you live) and follow their schedule during the 8th day. This past Friday when all began and saturday morning when it continued there were plenty of explanations for the layman. Plus --while these rituals take place -- the lighting of the 8 candles etc. jewish communities do make extra activities to show their friendship to other cultural and religious communities around their circle. and here again a good opportuntity to learn and to socialize. do these things...it is better to see and feel rather than just read them here. hope it helps. and happy hanukkah.
ps.tomorrow wednesday there is a big gathering in montreal, quebec canada. you are invited if you are around that city.
2006-12-19 16:28:39 · answer #4 · answered by s t 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hello Maria Gallercia, and Happy Holidays!
Thank you for your interest in Hanukkah.
I'll keep this brief: a lot of people tend to confuse Hanukkah as a Jewish version of Christmas.
While I respect the Christian belief that their Savior was born on December 25th, the fact is, Hanukkah is nothing remotely like Christmas...and for that matter, giving gifts really isn't part of the objective.
So, what is the objective (you might ask)?
Freedom to worship whom you want!
As you may or may not know, the story of Hanukkah centers around some early-day Jews who were told that they had to abandon Adonai (i.e., God) and worship multiple pagan deities.
The Jews fought and won their right to worship as they chose.
So, it doesn't really matter how people celebrate Hanukkah.
What DOES matter, is that we should all take a stand to fight for what we believe in - to worship (or not) whom we chose to...not what some dictator or government says we should.
I love the lights, I love the food but most importantly, I love the freedom!
Happy Hanukkah!
2006-12-19 16:22:40 · answer #5 · answered by docscholl 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/chanuka/chanstr.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
I am a young reform jewish person and this is my opinion,
this site is good becuase its pretty easy to understand. play dreidle, which is explained in the site. and make patatoe panakes and eat and just have fun! its a holiday celebrating miracles. teach your godchildren to respect the holiday, but do not tell them "its the jewish persons christmas." hanukkah just gets alot of hype becuase its close to chistmas, its not one of the more important jewish holidays, nessesarily.
gifts have to do with most jewish holidays, they are kind of optional and the family decides. i think the gift giving on hanukkah grew becuase of chistmas. jewish people will not get offended if you give them gifts for hanukkah, im pretty sure they will apriciate anything you give them. dont feel like you might offend them becuase most jewish will people appriciate the thoughtfulness.
2006-12-19 13:52:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well you have to light candles and say prayers.You also have to sing songs.To get a menorah go to your local synagogue.To get Hanukkah prayers and songs you can go to any Jewish website.When you light menorah you light from right to left.You also have traditional foods like latkes and fried donut.So for more info ask a/your rabbi at a nearby synagogue.
2006-12-20 13:24:41 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Im a reform Jew. I celebrate hannukah. You have the menorah and hannukah candles. You put one candle in the holder and the candle in the middle on the first night. Then you light it with the candle in the middle. That is the chamus(SP?) candle. Then we say a prayer in Hebrew. THe next night you put in an extra candle. It goes in succession for eight days. Gift are given to kids on each night. Thats a vague summary..
We make matza ball soup and latkas on the first night too! The comment after mine reminded me!
2006-12-19 13:44:52 · answer #8 · answered by dixie_girl137 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My Hanukkah is pretty crazy because my mom is Jewish and my dad Catholic and yesterday we were on plane flying to Boston to celebrate Christmas so we brought our potable menorah on the plane.
2006-12-20 04:42:49 · answer #9 · answered by ? 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
An excellent web site for learning about Hanukkah is:
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default.asp
2006-12-20 20:31:22 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋