How many of you hear the word Chanukah and immediately start singing “Hanukkah oh Hanukkah come light the menorah”? It’s definitely one of my favorites when it comes to singing Hanukkah songs.
Growing up Jewish and at different times of my life in different Jewish Community settings somewhere a large community and others were quite small. In high school I only knew of about 10 people at my school who were Jewish. And found out 20 years later that several others so I graduated with were also Jewish but kept it under wraps.
But the age-old question of “how do you spell Chanukkah” will always be prevalent in any size community conversation. My Jewish friends have this argument as well as mine on Jewish friends. It’s quite funny LOL but to be honest as long as you can pronounce it. I’m not really too particular about how you spell it.
So What’s The Story Behind Hanukkah?
Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights. It is a celebration that honors the recovery of A certain piece of land by one community battling against another. The land specifically was Jerusalem. And the battling was between The Maccabees and the Greek- Syrian Army. Similar to the current situation between Russia and the Ukraine.
I see this as a story of the underdog and the big dog fighting for their country and their land. The Maccabees were a small peasant like community who was fighting to keep control over Jerusalem, their Holy Land. They ran off into the hills to regroup and then fought the armies until they were able to retake Jerusalem. It was at that time that they returned to their temple (house of worship) and found it destroyed (Much like synagogues all over Europe during the Holocaust.)
8 Crazy Nights the Movie Wasn’t Too Far Off the Path
As the Maccabees cleaned up the temple, night time was approaching and they were struggling to find the oil they needed to light the lamps inside the temple.
They came across a single vial of oil that will only last one. But it takes 8 days for oil to be produced for the lamps. But they faithfully lit the oil and continued to restore their temple.
LOW AND BEHOLD A GREAT MIRACLE HAPPENED THERE. The oil burned for 8 days! That’s right, EIGHT days. It magically burned for the same amount of time that it took for the new oil to be ready.
It’s like having just enough creamer for your last cup of coffee right before your grocery delivery arrives. That’s a miracle too!
So how do Jewish people celebrate Chanukah?
In my family we come together on the first night, usually at my parents house. (now that those traitorous humans I call my parents have moved to Dallas I have to rethink ALL my holiday celebrations) Anyways, We used to get together at my mom and dad’s house and my mom would cook her famous brisket, sometimes a noodle kugel oh, I always thought the spinach salad because I love it and I’m good at making it. And we would make a ridiculous amount of potato latkes also called potato pancakes. Not to be confused with hash browns here in the state of Texas if they are entirely different please don’t get them confused and please stop putting salsa on top of my latkes!
For Hanukkah, usually in my household we would invite all of our non-jewish friends and some of our Jewish friends to celebrate the holiday with us. We would dine on all my mother’s wonderful food and then we would break out the lot size. What is a latke? How do you make a latke? I’ll throw in a recipe for you just to have on hand and you let me know what you think about them! I stole this recipe from here. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled
- 1 large egg, beaten, or more to taste
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon grated onion
- ½ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- ¼ cup peanut oil for frying, or as needed
Directions
- Slice peeled potatoes and run through a food processor fitted with the grater attachment. Place shredded potatoes in a cheesecloth and wring, extracting as much moisture as possible.
- Measure 2 cups shredded, drained potatoes and place into a medium bowl; save any extra for another use. Add egg, flour, onion, and salt, and stir until well combined.
- Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Place large spoonfuls of potato mixture into the hot oil, pressing down on them to form 1/4- to 1/2-inch-thick patties.
Cook until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Flip and repeat on the other side.
4. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain while you cook any remaining latkes. Serve hot.
5. I like to serve them with sour cream and/or applesauce and as a kid I would use both AND add sugar to the top!
OBVIOUSLY this recipe must be doubled, possibly even tripled if you’re going to make the amount of latkes that we make in our family. As a matter of fact you might as well quadruple it. LOL
I like to fry these golden babies of potato goodness outside because while the smell of fried potatoes is AMAZING and makes my mouth water, it also lingers on everything in your home for a few days. So I recommend making them outside. I like to use an electric skillet for this too. Wait until the oil is nice and hot before throwing on your first batch. Sometimes the first batch falls apart or doesn’t cook quite right. Don’t give up and move on to the next batch. By then the oil should be good and ready and things will move along easier.
The Gifts You Give on Hanukkah
On the first night of Chanukah I give my family a new menorah, a box of candles, several bags of Gelt (chocolate coins used to play dreidel) and a new dreidel. Sometimes I throw in a gift or two but usually the first night is all about the tools we need to celebrate this year.
One year, on day three of Chanukah I think, I gave my son (who was about 7 or 8 at the time) his gift. He HATED IT. He threw a fit. He was ungrateful and mean about it. I was heartbroken that my son behaved this way and I was determined to help him understand the gift of appreciation and kindness.
So the next day I took my son to the grocery store. I stood in front of the cart and I waved $20 in front of him. I told him today you’re going to be spending your Hanukkah guest money on other people. I want you to understand that being given gifts is not a requirement and that your appreciation and acknowledgement of somebody else’s kindness is important too. So today we’re going to be buying food for people who don’t have enough food to eat everyday.
You’re going to buy food with your Hanukkah money because another child somewhere in this city isn’t worried about a gift, he’s worried about what he’ll eat for dinner. He was definitely upset about this and he argued and fussed with me for quite some time.
So we began going through the store and I pulled out my phone and opened up the calculator app so that we could start doing some math to see how much food he could get for his $20. It kind of became a game and as we got further and further into the store he got more into it and almost completely forgot that he was spending his own Hanukkah money. Lol.
In the end we had a pretty decent bag of food put together and he even told the checkout clerk what we were doing and was pretty proud of himself. He even let me take a picture of him dropping the bag into the food bank collection bin at the front of the grocery store.
After that this became a yearly tradition with us that we still do to this day.
So as we wrap up our conversation about Hanukkah. I hope that it didn’t slip past you that I spelled Chanukah every way possible within this blog and probably came up with a couple of unique ways of spelling it for myself. LOL it really doesn’t matter how you spell it, it’s all about how you celebrate it! Happy Chanukah!