Glowing memories of Hanukkahs past
The eight-day festival of Hanukkah was, in my youth, considered a lesser holiday if thought of in religious terms. It was however, the favorite of most of us children. Everywhere, there was warmth, fun and brightly shining candles. Our house was enveloped by the smells of cooking and baking. Each night there was a party atmosphere. We went to visit family and friends, and they came to visit us. We celebrated for all eight nights.
Each evening after my dad came home from work, we would light the Hanukkah candles. Every home had at least one menorah, some had several, one for each child so that they could each light their own candles. In our house we had only one. Dad would stand before the menorah and as he lit one candle each night, he recited the prayer. There are eight nights of Hanukkah but the menorah holds nine candles. Every night we light the main candle which is called the shamus (the servant) plus an additional one. Each night a prayer is said. On the eighth day all the candles of the menorah are lit.
Some evenings we would go to visit family. My aunt and uncle and two of my cousins lived one block from our house in Brooklyn. We celebrated all the holidays together. My Aunt Bea was a much better baker than my mom, and her voluptuous figure was an indication of her enjoyment of her own baking. Hanukkah meant very unhealthy, but oh-such-delicious foods. Aunt Bea made the best jelly doughnuts. They were soft and warm and filled with raspberry jelly almost to the point of bursting, and they had a coating of powdered sugar on top.
My mom made wonderful latkes (potato pancakes) crisp and crunchy on the outside but soft and smooth on the inside. The sound of the oil sizzling as they fried made our mouths water. They were eaten topped most of the time with fresh apple sauce and occasionally with sour cream. One of the hardest but most fun jobs was to mash the apples after they were cooked. I hated to have to peel and core them though. When I was growing up no one ate store-bought apple sauce. We always made it at home from crisp new apples.
We did not get presents for this holiday. When I was growing up, you got Hanukkah gelt (money). The custom of giving gifts originated in the United States in the late 1940s or '50s, mostly as a result of exceptional merchandising by the retail stores and some of the jealousy Jewish children felt of their Christian friends who received gifts for Christmas.
There was a gambling game we all played. You used a dreidel, which looks like a square top. Now we see dreidels filled with chocolate and "gelt" in chocolate as well. When I was a kid, dreidels were for playing games, and they were generally made of wood. It is too complicated to describe exactly how the game is played but briefly, each side of the top has a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. You can gamble with M&Ms, money, matchsticks or whatever you like. Each person puts in a bet and spins the dreidel. Depending where the dreidel lands, you either win or lose your bet. The object of the game is, like in Monopoly, that one person ends up with all the proceeds. We all loved to play and especially to play with coins. If we could convince our parents to play with us, so much the better, that way there were more coins in the pot, and they usually let us win.
Singing was a part of the holiday also. There are special songs to sing for Hanukkah. In my home the songs were very often sung in Yiddish. My parents were both immigrants, and although English was the first language of our household, Yiddish was the second. In Europe, Yiddish was referred to as the mama loshen (mother language). The reason for this is that Hebrew was the language of the synagogue and therefore not spoken away from the temple. The combination of German and Russian and even some Greek and English mixed in -- that is the Yiddish that was spoken at home. My sister, brother and I, growing up could understand the language, even speak a little. Now, virtually all the Hanukkah songs have been translated into English.
Today, I am the mother and grandmother. I cook the latkes, but I buy the apple sauce in the supermarket and the jelly doughnuts at the bakery. I give my children and grandchildren gifts, for that is the way this holiday is celebrated now. My children give their children both Christmas and Hanukkah presents. Sometimes I miss the old ways, but I am grateful that my family, my children and grandchildren still observe this festival with one another. I watch happily as my grandsons light the menorah and recite the prayers together. The girls are too young to light candles. The way we do things may evolve over the years, but I feel such gratitude at the fact that my family is still together and together we carry on the traditions of our faith and our heritage.
--Ellie Layton,Smithtown
