A Local Jew’s Guide to Hanukkah

By Sienna McDonald

If you’ve grown up here in the Central Valley, you probably can’t say you’ve met a lot of Jewish people. There’s a chance you didn’t even know we had a small Jewish community here; in fact, according to Google we have a 0% Jewish population. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been told I’m the first Jewish person someone knows. So unless you’re a fan of Adam Sandler or Jonah Hill, you probably don’t know much about one of our biggest holidays, Hanukkah, or also known as “Chanukah”. So here I am to help spread the word about what Hanukkah is and how it’s celebrated. The American way, of course. 

Before we get into the celebration, it’s important to acknowledge the history and where the holiday originates from. The name comes from the Hebrew word meaning “dedication”. It was given this name because it celebrates the Maccabees, a Jewish rebellion group, who revolted against a king who prevented Jews from practicing Judaism. Once they were able to successfully take back the land of Jerusalem, they cleared out the temple and rededicated it. This included lighting the Menorah, when there was only one cruse of oil with only enough oil to last one night. However, it lasted eight nights, which was considered a miracle and is why lighting the menorah on each night of Hanukkah is so important. While originally just a small celebration, it has transformed to be one of our biggest holidays due to it being around the time of major holidays. 

Now fast forward thousands of years in the future, Hanukkah is celebrated by Jews all over the world. There are many different ways to celebrate depending on culture and where you live, but I’m going to be going over the American way of celebrating. Due to America’s commercialized Christmas culture, a lot of the fun aspects of Christmas were incorporated into Hanukkah celebrations such as gift giving and Wintery decorations. For my family, we even have what we call a “Hanukkah tree”. Each night, before we light the menorah, the whole extended family and our friends come together and exchange gifts. That’s right, eight days of presents. Now, there isn’t a Jewish version of Santa Claus who comes down the chimney and gives us Hanukkah presents. Hanukkah focuses more on the family and friends aspect of gift-giving, and is done in order to show the people in your life you care about them. A very common little gift to give, I get one every year myself, is a dreidel. 

A dreidel is a Hanukkah tradition. It’s a little four sided spinning top, each side having a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. These letters have different meanings and representations depending on which version of the game is being played. They have extremely nice ones, some being antiques made out of glass, but you can even just make one out of paper really easily. It’s essentially a gambling game, so each player starts out with 10-15 “game pieces” and puts one in a pot. These game pieces can be anything. Chocolate, pennies, etc. My family usually uses “Hanukkah Gelt” (Hanukkah themed chocolate coins) when we play all together, but later in the night the adults typically play a more mature version of the game with alcohol. Essentially, each player takes a turn spinning the dreidel, depending on which side is standing up when it’s no longer spinning, you either get “nun” (nothing), “gimel” (everything in the pot), hei (half of the pot) or a shin, which means you have to give up another piece into the pot. It’s a super fun game, especially if you’re playing in a large group and there’s more in the pot. I would recommend that even if you’re not Jewish, play your own variation for Christmas as it’s a great time to socialize and have fun with the people you’re celebrating with. 

Now that leaves us with my personal favorite part of Hanukkah: the food. The meals every night are a big part of Hanukkah, after all we have eight nights. That’s eight different feasts, there needs to be some variety. We mostly eat fried foods with a lot of dairy to make sure it meets the kosher requirements. Latkes are probably one of the most well known Hanukkah foods; they are pieces of potato fried in oil. Essentially, they are hash browns but traditionally served topped with applesauce or whipped cream. However my favorite is kugel, it’s a sweet casserole made with egg noodles using sugar, eggs and sour cream. Raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg are often added as well. But of course you can’t talk about Hanukkah without mentioning Challah, which is a type of bread we eat. Usually used to soak up the extra brisket juices left on your plate around the holiday season. 

I hope you were able to learn some stuff about the Hanukkah holiday and maybe get an insight into the season for Jewish-Americans. This year, Hanukkah will be celebrated Dec.7th – Dec.15th, so make sure to wish any of your Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah. And if you’re interested in learning more about the holiday, there’s always Adam Sandler movies.