Are You Ready for Happy Hanukkah Tonight?

  • Thread starter hypatia
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In summary: After all, it's the holiday of the oil lamp. So tonight, we should all be burning those pesky little things extra bright. And speaking of burning things, wouldn't it be fun to play "Spin the Dreidel?"In summary, this Chanukah thread discusses the various activities people enjoy during the holiday. Some ideas include making latkes, playing games, and listening to music. One mother shared a few ideas for special activities that can be done every night.
  • #1
hypatia
1,177
9
Which starts at sundown tonight. May your lights burn bright.
 
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  • #2
Who wants to play "Spin the dreidel"? Actually, I'd like to have some nice latkes.

Happy Hanukkah.
 
  • #3
Happy Hanukkah.
 
  • #4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrd9p47MPHg

Instead of one day of presents, we get eight crazy nights!
 
  • #5
Oh my goodness. Are thoes silly people still doing that?
This is taken from a forum restricted to married orthodox women. I love the women only part because we can really talk dirty and tell good jokes. :biggrin:

From a mommy today:
"I try to plan something special for every night (some nights it's just small things). One night, we'll have traditional - make latkes, play dreidel. One night, we'll play hot and cold with chocolate coins that I hide throughout the house. One night, we'll do a scavenger hunt to find chanukah gelt or thisr presents. One night, we'll have a family party. One night (into Chanukah, when there are at least five candles being lit) we go for a "menorah drive" and try to find a specific number of menorahs in people's windows within a time limit. Etc, etc. We've made Chanukah cookies, sufganiyot and chocolate coins. We've had family game nights ( if you have time, you can make up a game show style game with chanukah questions. Or Olomeinu often has pullout games for Chanukah). This year, I found a cute game on another thread on this website where you collect items beginning with the letters on the dreidel ( can use the sounds with English words) and when you spin the dreidel, you have to put on an item from the bag with the corresponding letter. If you have smaller children, you can make window clings or other craft projects. One year, we took cardstock and cut out candle and dreidel shapes, lined the back with colored plastic and hung them up. I hope these ideas help! Have fun!"

Another one for yummy latkes:

"This was posted on Weight Watcher's in October. I modified it by using sweet potatoes (more fiber, nutrients) and added a little more egg since the first batch fell apart.

Eat 'em for breakfast (yummy with pumpkin butter this time of year), snack, with din, etc.! Enjoy!


1 large Yukon Gold potato(es), peeled--CHANGED TO SWEET POTATOES
1 medium apple(s), such as Pink Lady, peeled, cored, quartered
4 tsp dehydrated onion flakes
1 large egg(s), beaten
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 spray(s) cooking spray
1/2 cup(s) fat-free sour cream

Instructions
Shred potato and apple into a medium-size bowl using the fine-holes of a box grater or shredder; stir in onion flakes. Press out as much liquid as you can by hand; drain liquid. Set aside mixture for 1 minute and press out liquid again; drain again. Stir in egg, salt, pepper and cinnamon.

Coat a very large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Drop potato mixture by tablespoonfuls into skillet and flatten each with the back of a spoon to make twenty 2-inch latkes. Leave at least 1 inch between latkes; you will have to do this in batches.

Cook latkes until golden on first side, about 3 minutes. Gently flip latkes with a spatula and cook until other side is golden, about 3 to 4 minutes more. Carefully remove latkes to a serving plate; cover to keep warm and repeat with remaining ingredients. Top with sour cream and serve. Yields 2 latkes and 2 1/3 teaspoons sour cream per serving.

1 point per serving"


As far as "Spin" the dreidel?" That's on a part of the forum that I can not share with the public. :rofl:

Wishing everyone a joyful Chanukah! Ah Freilichen un ziesin Chanukah alla der yidden!
Thank you for starting this thread. How sweet.
 
  • #6
Jews really are smarter than Christians. They took a holiday fraught with religious importance and ruined it with Santa Claus. We at least had the good sense to ruin a minor holiday. We often get lost on the road, so this year I got my wife a gps with a 52" plasma display. She got me a CD of Mickey and the Klezmer Katz Sing Your Favorite Christmas Melodies. You haven't lived until you've heard Hirschel Glickman wail out Silent Night on the clarinet. Here's a little known factoid. Irving Berlin's original title for White Christmas was Blue Hannukah and it was intended for the Yiddish theater. However, he was short of cash at the time and Paramount bought it. They changed the name and hired goyim and shikses for the parts. I wish I could have been there to see their faces when they found out Danny Kaye was Jewish.

Hannukah comes early this year, Kislev 25. It is a conglomeration of several holidays, Chanukah, Hanukkah, and Hanuka among them. But mostly Sukkot. Unlike a lot of the shenanigans in the Bible, Hannukah commorates an event that isn't even in the Bible. Well, not the Jewish Bible. The Catholics have it and call it Macabees. And unlike a lot of the goings on in the Bible, this event is historical. What happened was that the Hellenistic Jewish patriots/terrorists (take your pick) were still engaged in guerilla warfare at the time of Sukkot and could not perform the temple rituals. When they succeeded in kicking out the Hellenistic Assyrian coalition of the willing they celebrated Sukkot late. Sukkot is an eight day holiday and that is why Hannukah is as well. The story about the oil in the lamp lasting eight days was added onto the story 200 years after the fact. The upshot of all this was the installation of the Hasmonean Dynasty in Judea, one of the worst disasters to befall any country other than North Korea. Happy Hannukah all.
 
  • #7
All I got to say is.. JIMMY'S SHIKER! :tongue: Please don't anyone try and understand what Wabbi Schnidder just said.
L' Chiam Yoily! :rofl:
 
  • #8
Lacy33 said:
Yoily!
No, Itchy.
 
  • #9
Jimmy Snyder said:
No, Itchy.

Nu? L' Chaim Yitzy, Itchy, a little cream will help. If it's bad, give a little more?
 
  • #10
Lacy33 said:
All I got to say is.. JIMMY'S SHIKER! :tongue: Please don't anyone try and understand what Wabbi Schnidder just said.
But it's just so very awesome and sort of lines up with all that stuff they taught me in day school. :)

And I now want a copy of "Mickey and the Klezmer Katz Sing Your Favorite Christmas Melodies".
 
  • #11
story645 said:
But it's just so very awesome and sort of lines up with all that stuff they taught me in day school. :)

And I now want a copy of "Mickey and the Klezmer Katz Sing Your Favorite Christmas Melodies".

And der Rosh Yeshivah was Reb Shicker too? Vat cheder did you go to? It's not so bad what I learned in Bais Whatever, and not that I wouldn't want to hear di di di Reuven der rot nosed heffer vas a gevaldik behema und if you efer saw him you would not believe your eyes! yie, yie, de, de, dum, dum yie!
I say let's all just get drunk and forget about it!
 
  • #12
Lacy33 said:
Vat cheder did you go to?
My hebrew academy of most kadosh kiruv tried to teach me how to be an aidle meidle, so any gaps in my education are most probably my fault for not being an utter mensch.

I say let's all just get drunk and forget about it!
oy veis meer, it's a total hillel hashem to get drunk.
 
  • #13
story645 said:
My hebrew academy of most kadosh kiruv tried to teach me how to be an aidle meidle, so any gaps in my education are most probably my fault for not being an utter mensch.


oy veis meer, it's a total hillel hashem to get drunk.

a frumie on pf?
An I hope not a total hillel hashem to get drunk cause the men at my shul on Simchat Torah were not even good to walk down the stairs leave alone get all the way home. And I consider them frum.
 
  • #14
Lacy33 said:
a frumie on pf?
Techinically a bt.

An I hope not a total hillel hashem to get drunk cause the men at my shul on Simchat Torah were not even good to walk down the stairs leave alone get all the way home
*shrugs* I think guys make up their own rules on how drunk they're allowed to get on various holidays. I don't know the exact rule.

To be on topic, I totally want latkes but my grammy is out of town and she's the one who has the ages old basic recipe. She made 'em last week, but it's nowhere near the same.
 
  • #15
story645 said:
Techinically a bt.


*shrugs* I think guys make up their own rules on how drunk they're allowed to get on various holidays. I don't know the exact rule.

To be on topic, I totally want latkes but my grammy is out of town and she's the one who has the ages old basic recipe. She made 'em last week, but it's nowhere near the same.

well nice to meet another bt. Chabad? I do know the halachah re drinking if you want to know I would pm that to you. And when you are talking like I was to a yid who is acting like a shegetz, you schmooze on his level.
I figure here we don't have to be so much on tzitkus. Be like that on IMA where people will understand. Here you have like that the apikorsim.

But the lights are beautiful boruch Hashem. And I sorry you didn't get to eat bubby's latkes.
 
  • #16
Did everyone get that whole kiruv thing? :confused: I'm confused.
 
  • #17
Lacy33 said:
Chabad?
Chofetz Chaim/yeshivish

if you want to know I would pm that to you
Cool.

And when you are talking like I was to a yid who is acting like a shegetz, you schmooze on his level.
I think he was being cute,

I figure here we don't have to be so much on tzitkus. Be like that on IMA where people will understand.
My faux yiddish is failing me here, and what's IMA?

But the lights are beautiful boruch Hashem.
I like Chanukah 'cause my mommy bought me the coolest menorah that looks like aladdin's lamp and I have the round glass oil holders so it has this great old fashioned feel. My new silver polish is also totally awesome.
 
  • #18
As you know only so much can be said before this whole thing becomes loshon hora.
I will pm you. Nice to meet you.
Happy Chanukah.
 
  • #19
Lacy33 said:
Did everyone get that whole kiruv thing? :confused: I'm confused.
kiruv->outreach. I went to the Jewish day school equivalent of a public school. Took anyone, stated goal was to introduce Judaism to all of them.

Nice to meet you. Happy Chanukah.
Right back at you.

And I just remembered the ultimate geek hannukah gift: Deluxe LED Menorah Kit
 
  • #20
Well that was a huge suprise. TY. PFB's. You never know where they will turn up.
 
  • #21
Lacy33 said:
All I got to say is.. JIMMY'S SHIKER! :tongue: Please don't anyone try and understand what Wabbi Schnidder just said.
L' Chiam Yoily! :rofl:

i didn't understand much of that, but it's fascinating enough that now i want to
 
  • #22
And me too. I would love to hear Rabbi Jimmy explain all that. I'm just sitting right here. :approve:
 
  • #23
Happy Hanukkah!
 
  • #24
Lacy33 said:
All I got to say is.. JIMMY'S SHIKER! :tongue: Please don't anyone try and understand what Wabbi Schnidder just said.
L' Chiam Yoily! :rofl:
There really is a rule on PF against using any language but English. I don't know how half the posts in this thread got away with it. Anyway, this one is easy. Shiker means drunk. Wabbi Schnidder is Rabbi Snyder, me. L'Chiam, as you know from Fiddler on the Roof, means "To life" and is commonly said as a toast before taking a drink. Yoily is the Yiddish diminutive for the Hebrew name Joel. I'm not sure, but I think that Lacy33 was trying to guess what my Hebrew name is. So my response was "No, Itchy" meaning that my Hebew name is not Joel, but Isaac.
 
  • #25
Actually, this thread make me sad.

Before the war Warsaw (and Poland in general) was a multicultural country, now - wherever one looks - it is all the same. And - apparently - the mix can be so colorful.

If not for the fact it is 10:40 am and I am even before breakfast, I would start drinking.
 
  • #26
Borek said:
Actually, this thread make me sad.

Before the war Warsaw (and Poland in general) was a multicultural country, now - wherever one looks - it is all the same. And - apparently - the mix can be so colorful.

If not for the fact it is 10:40 am and I am even before breakfast, I would start drinking.

And this is one of the reasons why some of the Jews still get drunk on holidays permitting it. Some, not many, but some Jews came though Poland and brought with them "traditions!"

For Itchy, Your name is Yitzchak, The endearment would be Yitzy. I'm sorry I didn't mean to call you that. I am not family.

The other terms used that were not obvious to most people who would be visiting a happy hannukah thread could be easily looked up as I have to invest a lot of time doing when I visit the forum upstairs here. Like in astrophysics. :shy:
Jimmy, I like yourself was trying to share something of our tradition but in a little more direct way than what ever fun you were having there in your first post. We normally, as a community find that more harmful than useful. We live in a kinder world in some respects and can be a little more direct. I am not saying all, but most people not from our community know what shicker means.
Drunk or shicker in Torah terms can mean with or without drinking. It is even thought that one who can be shicker or drunk on an idea is regarded highly as long as it not too much drunk. A little wine will make you wise like a king and too much will make you stupid like a fool.
 
  • #27
Happy Chanukah! :biggrin:
 

1. What is the significance of Hanukkah?

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after it was desecrated by the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. It is also known as the Festival of Lights, as it commemorates the miracle of a small amount of oil lasting for eight days in the Temple's menorah.

2. When is Hanukkah celebrated?

Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days and nights, starting on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. This usually falls in November or December on the Gregorian calendar.

3. What are the traditional customs and rituals of Hanukkah?

The main customs of Hanukkah include lighting the menorah, playing dreidel, eating traditional foods like latkes and sufganiyot, and exchanging gifts. Families also often gather to sing and tell stories about the holiday.

4. What is the significance of the menorah in Hanukkah?

The menorah is a nine-branched candelabra that is lit during Hanukkah. The eight branches represent the eight days of the holiday, and the ninth branch, known as the shamash, is used to light the other candles. The menorah symbolizes the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days in the Temple.

5. How is Hanukkah different from other winter holidays?

Hanukkah is a holiday that is specific to the Jewish faith, while other winter holidays like Christmas and Kwanzaa have different origins and traditions. Hanukkah is also celebrated for eight days, while other holidays may only be celebrated for one day. Additionally, Hanukkah celebrates a historical event rather than a religious figure or deity.

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