Thank you to the Rose family for sharing their traditions around Hanukkah with the community! BMS families, if you have a holiday you are willing to share about, please reach out to Jess at assistanthos@montessori.k12.in.us.
Many people assume that Hanukkah is a major Jewish holiday because it’s so close to Christmas. It follows the lunar calendar and can happen anytime between late November and early January. As a minor Jewish festival, we don’t stop working or go to temple or have a special feast but Hanukkah remains a beloved family celebration filled with light and joy. It also marks the triumph of freedom over oppression. More than 2,000 years ago, the king of the Seleucid Empire ruled over the Jews of Judea (Jerusalem and the surrounding areas) and wanted them to stop being Jewish and adopt Hellenistic culture. The Jewish Maccabees defeated the Seleucid army and when they regained control of their temple, it was a mess but a miracle happened; somehow, a small amount of oil was enough to light the menorah (candelabra) for 8 days.
Today, we celebrate the re-dedication of the temple each Hanukkah by lighting candles for 8 nights and eating foods fried in oil like donuts and potato pancakes, which we call latkes. It’s tradition to place a menorah in the window to share a symbol of religious freedom, hope, and Jewish identity with our neighbors.
Our family’s favorite Hanukkah tradition is playing a game called dreidel with a special spinning top. The Hebrew letters on each of the four sides of the dreidel stand for the saying “A Great Miracle Happened There.” In modern-day Israel, where Nili and Niv’s grandparents grew up, dreidels have a different Hebrew letter to symbolize “A Great Miracle Happened Here.”
Images:
- A menorah and traditional Hanukkah foods: latkes and jelly donuts fried in oil
- A picture of a Hanukkah menorah in the multifaith city of Haifa (where Nili and Niv’s grandmother grew up). In the picture you can see symbols of many faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Bahai (the gardens in the backdrop).
