Deborah T

Rugelach, anyone?

Sikorsky

Kind of. Except that 25 Kislev actually starts, as all dates in the Hebrew calendar do, at sunset, and not at midnight.

That is to say, the first day of Chanukah (if by "day" you mean "period when the sun is up") will be on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012, while the first night of Chanukah, when we will light the first candle, will be on Saturday, Dec. 8. But both Chanukah and 25 Kislev will begin at sundown on Saturday, Dec. 8--when Shabbat will end.

emilybee

When I saw this thread I thought I missed the beginning of Hanukkah again.

Lergnom

Yes, Sikorsky, I got that wrong. I knew it and blew it. I even looked it up and blew it because I saw from the shabbat calendar that it's 24 Kislev and shabbat definitely ends on Saturday. Thanks.

If not for this thread, I might have missed the holiday myself.

thumper1

Next year, could someone remind me about Chanukah sometime just after Halloween. I will never remember it...starting way too early. Even Nordstom won't have the decorations out by then

xiggi

Not being Jewish, I might not understand all the various bells and whistles of this celebration of your faith. This should not stop me, however, from participating from the outside and wish all my Jewish friends a very happy Chanukah.

And happy holidays to all!

chocchipcookie

^^How nice, Xiggi, thanks! We don't always understand the nuances of our holidays either! but we try!!

Happy Holidays to you too! I love the Holiday season, but hate when the stores display Christmas & Chanukah items starting in September, really. I watched carefully all the ads on tv in Oct. and they began in full earnest the day after Halloween. It's just too soon!

Again, as others have said, Chanukah was not and is not a major holiday, but it has become that way because of it's December celebration. I believe it was never meant to exchange presents....it is fun, though to bring out the menorahs each year....we light several and it's beautiful to see all the lights glowing at once...

shellfell

We always taught our kids the difference between Chanukah and Christmas, and not to feel bad about our holiday not being as glitzy and commercialized as Christmas. That's how I was raised. I could appreciate others' Christmas decorations and gifts without feeling like I was being cheated out of something.

OTOH, DH's parents always gave him and his siblings a present on Christmas when they were young so they wouldn't feel bad. My in-laws were very surprised when we told them that we didn't give gifts to our kids on Christmas and that our kids understood why they didn't get them.

Lergnom

AFAIK, the gift tradition on hanukah comes from guys like Maimonides saying that we as a people need to entice children to learn with the connection to the holiday coming from the "rededication" part. It's an interesting take because it takes the more literal truth that the war was fundamentalists versus assimilated and pulls the culture part of the assimilated out and grafts that to the fundamentalist revival part. The hanukah gelt and the dreidel can be connected to this educational incentive thing too. (I've never bought the idea that the dreidel was used to disguise torah study; it's obviously a gambling game that can be used to teach arithmetic.)

The other tradition deal is the same kind of metaphor. We eat potato pancakes fried in oil because of the story of the oil lasting and the rather literal connection that makes. In Israel, the usual treat is jelly doughnuts - sufganiyot - also a fried thing in oil. I suppose we could eat french fries. I personally would prefer an arancini.

I think a jelly doughnut party would be more fun than a potato pancake party.

SlitheyTove

I go with anything fried in oil. One of these years I will try deep fried snickers bars for Chanukah.

Heard of a Jewish wedding many years ago where they served both pastrami/corned beef/sliced turkey/etc and Indian food. Theme of Old Deli/New Delhi. <rimshot>

ellebud

SlitheyTove: Excellent!

jym626

lol, Slithey!

Deborah T

It appears folks are in a rush to fry. Not me. I'm sticking with the virtual rugelach for now. And, yeah, I'll pass on the deep fried snickers bars...

boysx3

This is going to be a bad Chanukah season....my sons have informed me that they want to try several latke recipes....which means I will have to do each recipe justice.

My boys said they are thinking of having a latke cook-off competition/Chanukah party after finals before everyone leaves to go home for break.

And they want to know if they will still get 8 presents this year, even though they won't be home all 8 days. (yes, they will. And they would be very disappointed if one gift was not a goofy toothbrush, and another gift was not some goofy socks or boxers--they get those every year. They wouldn't care if I gave them a girl's hair bow to open, as long as they had something to open. Their list of Chanukah wishes this year includes Legos and PLaydough and a Color By Number set, as well as a couple of real gifts--I can't believe my twentysomethings still want the toys they always wanted when they were little).

I am so looking forward to Chanukah next year, when I can buy the baby its first Chanukah gifts.

dg5052

Hard to think about a joyous Hanukkah celebration--or Thanksgiving, for that matter--with the worry over what the Israelis are dealing with.