Hanukkah: Eight Days of Giving???
A frequent topic of holiday discussion amongst my children and their non-Jewish friends is that of gift giving. The friend will wistfully ask: “Is it true that Jewish kids get a present every night of Hanukkah?” To which my kids have to reply: “Maybe in some families, but not in ours.”
Whether Hanukkah presents are doled out on one, two or eight nights is simply a matter of choice for individual families. In fact, Jewish tradition does not say anything about Hanukkah presents, (more…)
Hanukkah Games and Crafts
Click on the games below for fun Hanukkah ideas.
Dreidl (game instructions and a bit of dreidl trivia)
Check in regularly as more Hanukkah ideas will be posted soon.
Hanukkah game ideas on the way…
Check back soon for some great Hanukkah game ideas, including: Pin the Gimel on the Dreidl, Hanukkah Freeze Tag, and Hanukkah Fortune Tellers… to name a few.
Latkaland Colouring Pages
Kids can create their own Latkaland illustrations with these colouring pages.
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
Monday, October 26th, 2009
The Book of Judith
The book of Judith is commonly associated with Hanukkah. It is a favourite of mine for various reasons. The story is commonly regarded as an early work of historical fiction (one of my favourite genres). I also love a strong Jewish heroine – they’re not so easy to come by. Although Judith is devout, she is a woman of action.
Judith’s town is besieged by Assyrians, led by the cruel General Holofernes, a heartless man who shows no mercy for his victims – women and children included. Starving and thirsty, having abandoned all hope, the townspeople are ready to surrender. Judith, however, is a woman to be reckoned with. Accompanied by her maidservant, she approaches the enemy camp and persuades the guards she has information that will help the Assyrians capture the town. Having talked her way into the camp, she is taken to meet General Holofernes. (I should mention at this point that Judith is an exquisitely beautiful woman.)
On meeting Judith, Holofernes is beguiled by her beauty. Shortly after this beguiling, Judith manages to feed Holofernes substantial food and drink. One account actually has Judith feeding Holofernes a large quantity of cheese, which makes him very thirsty. He then imbibes a whole lot of wine in order to slake his thirst. However the story is told, Holofernes ends up in a hazy, drunken stupor, allowing Judith to take his sword and cut off his head. Then, cool as a cucumber, Judith leaves the camp, returns to her town, and tells the town leaders what has transpired.
The townspeople, spirits renewed by Judith’s good tidings, launch an attack on the Assyrians. The Assyrians, shocked at finding themselves with no commander (or at least, with a headless commander), flee for their lives. Judith saves the day!
In addition to being associated with Hanukkah, this story has inspired artists through the ages. My personal favourite is the Judith by Artemesia Gentilleschi that is found in the Uffizi. In my view, it takes a female artist to really do this story justice on canvas…but now I’m moving too far from our Hanukkah topic.
Posted in Hanukkah info and fun, Interesting Hanukkah stories | No Comments »
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Latkaland Potato Latkes
This is the recipe that Oily and the Lunchkins (characters from Adventure in Latkaland) follow when they make their latkes. If you can’t find Potatoland potatoes in your neighbourhood grocery store, russet potatoes are an excellent substitute.
A grownup should definitely help with this recipe – especially when the latkes have to be fried in lots and lots of boiling hot oil!
Ingredients
4-5 Potatoland (or russet) potatoes, peeled
1 small onion, peeled
2 eggs
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
Lots of vegetable oil for frying
Directions:
Grate the potato and the onion. Your grownup helper can use the grating attachment on a food processor for this step – it’s much faster.
Squeeze as much liquid out of the potato-onion mixture as you can. The Lunchkins use two different methods:
Hanukkah Puppets
These cute puppets are simple to make. The samples in the picture are based on Latkaland characters, but you can make the puppets into any character that you would like. They would make great Maccabees for Hanukkah!
For 1 puppet, you will need:
a styrofoam ball
a popsicle stick
a styrofoam cup
a pair of googly eyes
a bit of yarn (for hair)
a couple of pipecleaners (one sparkly)
glue
Optional: fabric scraps, ribbon, cardboard scraps
1. Put some glue on the end of the popsicle stick and push it into the styrofoam ball. If it won’t go, have a grown up make a small slit in the ball using a scissor. Now you have the Hanukkah (or other) puppet head.
2. Decorate your head. Glue on the googly eyes (or draw your own version) and draw a nose and mouth. Glue on some yarn for hair. If you’d like, add a felt kippah or a foil helmet.
3. Decorate the styrofoam cup, which will be the puppet body. You can cover the cup with glue and wrap fabric around it (as we did in the picture) or colour it with markers and add some stickers. If you are using fabric, have a grownup figure out where the pipecleaner arms will go, and make two small cuts in the fabric before glueing it onto the cup. You can also add a cape or ribbon or other decorations…it’s up to you.
4. Push a pipecleaner through the cup (and the holes in the fabric). Now your puppet has arms. Trim the pipecleaner so that the arms are the right length – but remember to leave room to bend the ends into hands.
5. Make a sword out of the glittery pipecleaner (use about 1/3 of the pipecleaner) and a shield out of the cardboard if you’d like. You can attach the shield to your puppet by punching two small holes through the cardboard and pushing the pipecleaner hand through.
6. Cut a small slit in the top of the cup, and push the popsicle stick through so that the head sits on top of the cup. Your puppet will be able to move it’s head from side to side and up and down (with your help, of course!). Make these with friends for Hanukkah – and make up your own Hanukkah puppet show.
Hanukkah – what it’s all about…
The story of the Maccabees inspires us to have confidence in ourselves and to never lose hope.
A long, long time ago (almost 2,200 years), a wicked Greek-Syrian king named Antiochus became ruler over the Jews. Jerusalem, with its holy Temple, was part of his domain.
Antiochus was very cruel to the Jews. He filled the Temple with pagan idols and ordered the Jews to bow down to them. He declared that the Jews could not follow their own customs, or pray to God. Anyone caught breaking Antiochus’ rules would immediately be put to death.
A brave young man named Judah rallied the Jews to fight back. (more…)
All about the Dreidl
A long standing Hanukkah tradition is the playing of the dreidl game, so here is some information about the dreidl, and directions for playing the game.
What is a dreidl?
A dreidl is a four-sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The letters, nun, gimel, hey and shin, stand for the words Nes gadol hayah sham – A great miracle happened there.
In Israel, the sham is replaced with a peh, and the word sham is replaced with po to say A great miracle happened here, as the Hanukkah miracles took place in what is now the State of Israel.
Edible Menorah
This is a quick, fun food craft that is also delicious to eat.
Ingredients
(for one menorah)
5 two-bite brownies (you can make your own, if you’d like, using your favourite brownie recipe and a mini-muffin tin)
6 sandwich cookies
9 small orange jelly beans (or red – these are your flames, so you choose)
Icing (store-bought is fine, or you can just make a paste with icing sugar and a few drops of milk or water)
9 toothpicks
A cardboard rectangle – about 11 inches by 3 inches (this can be cut from a shoe box, or any other box)
Tin foil – enough to completely cover the cardboard so that your menorah base is silver