Hanukkah Traditions

I was invited by Bernie from Needle & Foot to join in her Holiday Tales & Traditions Blog Hop. Be sure you visit the other participating bloggers listed below to read about their holidays.

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is a minor Jewish holiday. The traditional story is that in response to the suppression of their religion, Jews rose up and rebelled, eventually taking back control of their land and re-sanctifying the Temple in Jerusalem. The legend is that when the Temple was re-sanctified, there was only enough oil to burn for one day, but the oil miraculously lasted eight days, just long enough to resupply the Temple. This "miracle of the oil" brings us to our traditions of lighting candles for eight nights and eating fried foods.

My favorite part of the holiday is the lighting of the hanukkiah (often mistakenly called a menorah). This is done nightly for 8 nights. As a family, we light the candles while singing the Hanukkah blessings. These two photos are from the 6th night, yesterday evening. The kids are each holding a shamash (a helper candle), used to light the candles in the hanukkiah. The first photo above was taken at a community celebration years ago, a lovely event where we typically come together for lighting the candles and celebrating at our synagogue.

One of the by-products of being at home 24/7 for 9 months is that my husband has started to cook more often, developing a wider repertoire of skills in the kitchen. Saturday evening he made latkes from scratch for the first time. They were delicious and perfect! (I like mine with sour cream and applesauce.)

Thanks for visiting. Happy Holidays! I wish you a safe and happy season.

 

Hop over to read about the holiday memories from these other quilt bloggers:

Sew Preeti Quilts

Quilting Jetgirl

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Academic Quilter

From My Carolina Home

MMM! Quilts

Pieceful Thoughts

Devoted Quilter

The Colorful Fabriholic

Me & My Quilts

Kathleen McMusing

Sarah Goer Quilts

Needle and Foot 

26 thoughts on “Hanukkah Traditions

  1. Once upon a time, very long ago, I was dating a Jewish guy. I tried to make latkes to impress him. I say tried because they were awful. But my rugelach was "as good as the best I have ever tasted" he said. Reading this post reminded me of those memories. I never attempted latkes again but make rugelach (about once every two years) which my FIL calls "Jew Cookie" cause he cannot say rugelach :-)
    Have a Happy Holiday season, Sarah.

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      They are tricky and they're a lot of work! I've only made them from scratch a couple times. Thanks for visiting, Preeti!

      Reply
  2. There is nothing prettier than candlelight, I think. It gives off such a feeling of coziness and warmth and hope. Thank you for sharing your memories with us. I've never had latke, but it looks delicious!

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      I mean, anything made out of potato is pretty darn good, right!? It's very captivating to watch the candles burn. The kids really like watching them burn out.

      Reply
  3. Sarah, Thank you for sharing your traditions. I didn't know menorah was an incorrect term - I learned something! My DIL is Jewish and she and my son made Latkes the other day - they looked sooo good. Our family is all about texting pictures of our meals back and forth. What can I say? They are in Brooklyn so it keeps us more connected. :-)

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      Texting pictures is a great way to connect. :-) Menorah is very commonly used, even by Jewish folks. It's different from what we use for Hanukkah, with only seven lights. Thanks for hosting the blog hop, Bernie!

      Reply
  4. We live in a Jewish neighborhood, next door to the rabbi, and have been enjoying the candles and lights we see in our neighbor's windows. I hope they enjoy our lights too! Best wishes for some happy family times, and a better 2021.

    Reply
  5. Kathleen McCormick

    Love the lights of Hanukkah and wonderful that your husband has taken up cooking! That is a really good outcome from this time!

    Reply
  6. I did not realize menorah is not the correct term, so I learned something new today :) Thank you for sharing! I loved the picture of your kids' hands lighting the candles. It looks like a sweet, homey kind of moment.

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      A lot of people use the word menorah. ;-) Sweet and homey is a good description of Hanukkah. Tonight we'll enjoy jelly doughnuts as a substitution for traditional sufganiyot. Thanks for visiting, Leanne.

      Reply
  7. Kathleen McCormick

    I love that candelight of Hannakuh and the beautiful traditions surrounding families celebrating holidays. We have very good friends who are Jewish and I have been privileged to be at many celebrations with them. I have never seen so many hanukkiah lit at one time. Stunning.

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      Thank you, Michelle. While most of my communities have pivoted to some amount of online/Zoom interaction, I am really missing some special, in-person moments.

      Reply

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