Jewish Hanukah festival is an eight day event in which children get small gifts for each of the eight days. The dates vary year to year. In 2024 it starts on Christmas Day.
The short version of it is this. The festival celebrates the restoration of the famous temple in Jerusaelm, which had been desecrated by the Greeks. The Israelites had a multi-branch candlestick but not enough holy oil to keep the candelabra alight. Just enough for one day. However, by a miracle, the oil lasted and kept the lights burning for eight days until a new supply of oil was available.
The hanukiah is a candlestick with eight candle holders and a ninth which holds the servant candle which lights the others. On day one of the festival the lady of the house will light the servant candle, say a prayer, and use the candle to light the first - according to some, starting on the left? Each day another candle is lit. until on the last night all the candles are lit.
Because the word hanukah is translated from the Hebrew, spelling may vary. Chunakah. Hanukah. Hannukah.
Foods eaten are those connected with oil, such as donuts, and potato latkes (grated potato cake, a bit like American hash browns or Swiss rosti.).
Hosts or guests might want kosher wine. I like the classic sweet wine, Palwin's, used in Jewish services, Friday night dinners, and bar mitzvahs. The simple, sweet wine is delicious to my mind.
However, some people would go for the much more expensive kosher wines from Israel, or Rothschild estates in other countries.
If you want to buy Kosher wines at retail prices from a shop in London, Grapevine has two branches. One is in Hendon, 20 Bell Lane, NW4 2AD. We got an answerphone, and the website gave one time for closing and the recorded message another. So we aimed at the earlier time, allowing extra time for heavy pre-Xmas evening traffic.
The Grapevine shop also stocked kosher chocolates. These chocolates are available in square or round designs, flat, so you can see the contents. The round ones of mixed chocolates and other items from Fifteen pounds minus a penny, the chocolates only from twenty pounds.
The home which we visited was decorated with all sorts of happy Hanukah items. Banners said Happy Hanukah. A festoon of six-point stars (known as the star of David to Jews and the seal of Solomon to Muslims) in blue and silver was draped across the arched room divider wall. The dining table had Hanukah theme table paper napkins, spinning tops in the forms of a clown and dreidls.
Hanukiah Candlesticks
The evening events started with the lighting of Hanukah candles on a hanukiah. (A hanukiah is a nine-branch candlestick.
Candles
If your familiarity with maths (Ameicans say math) is the same as mine, you will be as surprised as I was to learn that to light the candles for eight days requires more than 40 candles. You are often offered on websites or shops a hanukiah packaged with a set of candles of the right size and number.
Menorah
Unlike the similar menorah lit on Friday evenings at the start of the sabbath, sunset on Friday. The menorah has seven branches for the seven days of the week.)
The starter for our meal was carrot soup with ginger. And coconut. Recipes say coconut milk. Very colourful. Bright orange. The first time I had tried it. It was excellent.
Latkes
The main course was chicken with vegetables and latkes. Latkes are a favourite of mine. Grated potato fried in oil. A traditional food for Hanukkah because of the symbolism of the oil.
You can eat latkes all year round at B & K Salt Beef bar and deli. Branches are in Hatch End and Edgware.
Hanukah donuts and decorative six-pointed blue stars
Donuts
We discussed the fact that donuts with holes in the middle were invented in America. Donuts often had centres which did not get cooked through properly. So, one day, an American cook punched a hole through the middle of a donut and that solved the problem.
After the meal was sat telling stories and spinning the dreidls. These are four sided spinning tops with Hebrew letters on the four sides.
You ill find them in Jewish shops. In London, in Edgware, Hendon, Golders Green, Finchley..
Jewish shops and restaurants might be closed on the Sabbath and festivals. Or only open for pre-booked, pre-paid, pre-cooked meals.
These shops will sell kosher wine and chocolates, Jewish greeting cards for Hanukah, Jewish New Year (autumn), Sukkot (building tents leaning against house walls, open to the sky between lattices, and hung with real or symbolic fruit for the late autumn harvest, and Passover (around Easter time).. You can also buy gifts online, such as tablecloths, cutlery, glassware, plates and crockery, decorations, books on learning Hebrew, books about Judaism and festivals, for adults and children, jewelery, and recordings of festival songs.
Useful Websites
Wikipedia - Hanukah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah
Grapevine Shops
https://www.kosherwine.co.uk/
Make Menorahs and Dreidls and Hanukiahs
https://www.wikihow.com/Category:Jewish-Holy-Days
See my previous articles on Hanukah and Jewish Festivals
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