Below is the text our teachers will be using during Morning Meeting during our 12 Days of Peace. In your newsletters this month will be more programs we’ll be doing this month to teach our scholars about generosity, including Angel Fish Families and Book on Every Bed.
Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that’s sometimes called the Festival of Lights. It lasts eight days starting on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev. This year, Hanukkah started on Sunday, December 2. Over 2,000 years ago, Israel was ruled by a king who said Jewish people couldn’t practice their religion. The king’s soldiers destroyed the Second Temple, where the Jewish people worshiped, and hurt Jewish people. Judah Maccabee and other Jewish people eventually stood up against the mean king. The king and his soldiers had to leave Israel. The Jews rebuilt the temple and were going to rededicate it, but the menorah—an oil lamp—had only enough oil in it to burn for one day. When they lit the menorah, though, it burned for eight days! This was enough time for more oil to be made. It was a miracle!
Nowadays, Jewish people celebrate this miracle by lighting a menorah with nine candles. Every night of Hanukkah, they light a candle and exchange gifts. They also enjoy special foods fried in oil like potato pancakes—called latkes, doughnut holes stuffed with jam—called sufganiyot, fritters, and more. Jewish children play some special games and sing special songs, too. The dreidel is a four-sided top that you can spin to win chocolate gelt, pennies, or raisins (or other things). It has letters on it that mean “a great miracle happened there,” but you can use the letters in the game to mean take a piece, give a piece, take all, or take none. There is a dreidel song, too:
I have a little dreidel // I made it out of clay // And when it’s dry and ready // Then, dreidel I shall play.
Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel // I made it out of clay // And when it’s dry and ready // Then, dreidel I will play.
If you meet someone who is Jewish, right now is a good time to say, “Happy Hanukkah!”