It's the 25th of Kislev ...

(And doubly annoyed that her son isn't in a position to be the teacher, himself.)

Ghosts of the babas are powerful ghosts.

Soz, I misread your question. You asked me for a Christian equivalent of Chanukah. Fact is, I can't think of one. Sorry. From a nonreligious point of view, maybe Flag Day. An important symbol, but not a major holiday.

I don't think there really is an equivalent to Chanukah. I mean, who else teaches the fine art of gambling to their children? Foxwoods Hotel & Casino?

Okay, some pronunciations.

The letters on the dreidel are:

Nun - the hardest of these particular 4 letters to pronounce. It's not nun and it's not noon. Rather, the vowel is more like the oo in book. Gimel - rhymes with the last name of the host of Jimmy Kimmel live. Hey - sounds just like what they feed horses. Shin - sounds just like the body part.

How to pronounce the words referenced on the dreidel:

Nes - rhymes with pace. Gadol - gahdOle, it's dole like Bob Dole and gah like, I dunno, like if you were standing up but had a little rheumatism. Haya - sounds like what you say if you're kung fun fighting, but the accent isn't quite so heavily on the second syllable. Sham - rhymes with prom.

Passover, oy, we should write about that next year. You're right, it's considerably more symbolic. One thing about Chanukah, though, at least when I was a kid, since there is something of an emphasis on gelt and gifts, you might want to work in a charitable angle.

Thanks Jes, great stuff!

OK so when the dreidel lands on shin (the letter), you don't say "oh you got a shin" you say "oh you got sham"? The letters just represent the words, and you say the words?

I like the charitable angle, we're doing that anyway (Toys for Tots), can link it to Hanukkah.

Hold the weddin', I don't think you've really gone into the gifts part. Gelt yes gifts no. Tell me more! My impression (I can check ul's links for this too) is that there are small gifts given each day of Hanukkah, but I want to know more.

I forget what we said when we landed on a shin, etc. It may just have been, "you have to share the pot" or whatever.

The present a day thing is mainly for very little children so sozlet definitely qualifies. I seem to recall a thematic thing, e. g. the first day I'd get doll shoes, then the next a doll dress or some other accessory, then another one and on the 8th day I'd get the doll it was all supposed to go along with. So you essentially know what you're getting, but it's got an element of deliciously maddening expectation, particularly for the very young. If her interest is, I dunno, dinosaurs, one day it can be a book, another day a pass to a museum with a dino exhibit, another day a dino model to build, another day a dino to play with, another day pajamas with a dino theme, etc. eventually culminating into something fascinating like a day spent fossil hunting or a real fossil or a trip to a museum in some other city or whatever.

My nephew is old enough now that we just get him a gift certificate or cash or a gift (usually books but sometimes sports equipment), but he's also 11 so the preferences are understandably quite different.

Soz, You gonna make latkes?

I may well. That's one thing I can ask my dad for, too, he's always made latkes. (Not for Hanukkah, just as an occasional treat throughout the year.)

Have you looked for children books about Chanukah?
I friend from the Jewish Museum here recommended this. I thought it was fun and interesting, but I couldn't use it because it was not translated ( at the time I needed it) in class.

Eric Kimmel
Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins

He also recommended activity books. Sorry, I didn't wrote down the titles.

We have that one!

That's the only thing we've really done so far, is read books ABOUT Hanukkah. But we've done a fair amount of that. (As in, previous years, not just so far this year.)

not fair. so you people get blintzes and latkes for Hannukah meal and we are stuck with..... a carp? come on, that's just not fair.


....although I have learned that the carp tradition (for Christmas meal, which is on 24th in Slovakia, along with presents and all) is an old Jewish tradition from Hungary, concretely spreading from Budapest which had a large Jewish minority until 1944 or even 45. They were among the last groups to be transported to the concentration camps.

Well, oy, carp with a latke on the side.

I had not considered this before.

Quote from the Jews on Mars: "But it's a dry heat."

I brought in dreidels to work yesterday. My Hindi coworker is the best dreidel spinner of the bunch.

my wife will make lattkes tonite. Good lattkes require that all smoke detectors are off because smoke is an active by product of a successful lattketorium.

So, which candle is lit tonight (Fri)? Ive been away for a little while.

Listening to Bone Button Borscht on the radio.

I'm ready for my festive glow.

First candle, so it's the Shammus and one.

We lit last night (no, we didn't get lit last night. Mebbe tonight :wink: ), 2 yellow candles. Had potato pancakes out, actually. Johnny's Luncheonette. Yum.

Today, in a completely nontraditional move, I'm making focaccia. Now that I know how, it's fun, it's tasty and it warms up the house and makes it smell wonderful.

Happy Chanukah! We have been playing the dreidel game in school. The kids play by different rules, though. With 'shin' they put one in. They kids love it and it teaches some basic math.

That food you post, Jespah, looks so yuuuummmmy....!

Yeah I think the shin is kinda open to interpretation. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on that. You know, two Jews, three opinions.

Ha, I found a Highlights story about Chanukah (recipe included)!
http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/Fiction/F1201_latkesDixie.asp

And thank you. Have a wonderful Christmas, littlek.