Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hanukkah - The Festival of Lights


Today we were fortunate to have "S" (a former student), assisted by her brother "J" (a current student), and father, Chip present the "The Festival of Lights" tradition to our class. "S" told the class that the festival is observed by lighting the nine-branched Menorah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. An extra light called a shamash (Hebrew: "guard" or "servant") is also lit each night for the purpose of lighting the others. Hanukkah is a wonderful holiday of renewed dedication, faith, hope and spiritual light. It's a holiday that says: "Never lose hope." "S" told us the story of the victory, thru the miracles of Hashem, of a small band of Maccabees over the pagan Syrian-Greeks who ruled over Israel. The children loved hearing the story but, moreover, loved learning a new game "dreidel". Students were given eight Hershey Kisses and a dreidel and learned the symbols and how to play. A big "thank you" to the Chip, S and J for sharing this tradition with the class.

3 comments:

Melanie Holtsman said...

Big thanks to S and J's family for teaching the class about this special holiday. My kids are now totally bummed we don't celebrate both! :) Tonight we played dreidel and they just love it!

Randy said...

Thank you "S", "J", and Chip for teaching Andrew about the dreidel. He beat me so bad that I'm in the hole 20 Hershey Kisses. The best part of the game was that Andrew was able to teach me. Thanks for sharing.

Randy said...

Thank you "S", "J", and Chip for teaching Andrew about the dreidel. He beat me so bad that I'm in the hole 20 Hershey Kisses. The best part of the game was that Andrew was able to teach me. Thanks for sharing.

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