| Issue #38, December 14, 2006 |
The Middle Nights of Your Festival of Lights
Growing up, I remember my non-Jewish friends being jealous and angry year after year about the fact that instead of one morning of presents, I was treated to eight glorious nights. They couldn’t get over it. Eight nights of lighting the menorah before furiously tearing wrapping paper off heaping piles of gifts. That’s more than a week!
Though this notion of Hanukkah wasn’t exactly the truth, I never gave up the secret that when it comes to Hanukkah, all nights were not created equal. Every young Jewish kid quickly learned that the most exciting gifts were given on either the first or the last night. New bikes, Easy-Bake Ovens and Barbie Beach Houses, if they were going to come, surely wouldn’t appear on the fifth or six nights. No, no, parents were predictable.
The problem for me was and is still for many, the middle six nights of Hanukkah. I often found myself waiting for the eighth night rather than looking forward to every night. In my house, I remember one of those middle nights was always reserved for “Calendar Night,” my least favorite annual tradition that consistently resulted in my brothers and me rolling our eyes and silently grumbling about our “presents” for an hour before bed.
What I didn’t realize then was that Hanukkah isn’t just about presents. Many young Jews, I’m sure, remember hearing this from their parents at least once a year: “In fact, the actual holiday has nothing to do with gift giving at all!” But believe it or not, it is possible to have eight amazing nights of Hanukkah.
Here are a few easy ways to re-discover your lost nights of Hanukkah.
Tradition:
–Light the menorah in the dark. It turns out that most Jewish families have never done this. The story of Hanukkah is about the light of the menorah and lighting the lights in the dark will make you appreciate the beauty of the menorah and the holiday much more.
–A friend of mine used to play dreidel every night with his sisters to decide who would get to open their presents first. For those who have never played, dreidels can be found everywhere from toy stores to supermarkets during Hanukkah and rules are very easy to learn and can be found using the internet. Don’t worry about using money or chips. I used M&Ms with my family.
–There actually are Hanukkah songs, and although they may not be as popular as your Christmas favorites, some of them are pretty catchy. My personal favorite is “Rock of Ages,” but there are plenty to sing each night. Again, I recommend turning to the Internet for Hanukkah songs you don’t already know. Many websites even have recordings you can listen to for melody.
Food:
–Hanukkah, as you know, is about the miracle of the oil that burned for eight nights. To celebrate this, Jews have eaten fried and oily foods at Hanukkah for thousands of years. The most common, in America, is the potato latke. In Israel it’s a small fried jelly-doughnut like treat called Sufganiyot. Both are delicious and relatively easy to make. Cooking a holiday treat with your family is always a fun way to celebrate and besides, what’s a Jewish holiday if it doesn’t come with delicious food?
–Hanukkah gelt (Yiddish for “money”) is little “coins” of chocolate that are given to children during the holiday. It’s really easy to give a bag of gelt to your family members or just have a bowl in the kitchen. Many kids play dreidel with them. Hanukkah gelt can be found at any supermarket at this time of year.
Gift Giving:
–If you have smaller kids – or even bigger ones – it can be fun to have a night of homemade gifts. The rule is that everything given has to be made by the person giving it, even the card and possibly even the giftwrap.
–No matter how old, everyone likes a good gift hunt. Hide presents around the house and let each person search for their gift. If you really want to get into it, leave little notes and clues around, directing them to their gifts to make a miniature scavenger hunt.
–Give each night a theme. For example, my Dad always used to have something he called “music appreciation night” where he gave each member of the family an album that he thought was essential to every music collection. This ended up also being the night where people gave musically oriented gifts like iPods, instruments and CDs. This can be done with almost anything, sports, clothes, foods, books, whatever. Just do your family a favor and skip calendar night.
– David Baron
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