A Great Miracle

A Great Miracle

by Eileen Armstrong

(age 10)

Imagine a brass candle holder with nine slots for candles, see children playing with a four sided top, you hear the sound of children laughing, you smell the scent of cooking oil well that is Hanukkah. Have you ever wondered what Hanukkah was all about, why Jews do it, and what it is for? Well here is the answer.

Now that brass candle holder you imagined is called a menorah. The menorah holds 9 candles and the 1 in the middle is called a shamash that means helper in Hebrew. The other 8 are for the 8 days in the miracle. What miracle you say? Well I think I should tell you about the miracle of Hanukkah. On the first Hanukkah the priests wanted to light their menorah. They only had enough oil for one day and it would take them 8 days to get more. So they lit it anyway but it stayed lit for 8 days and they had more oil by then.

That four sided top you imagined is called a dreidel. Each of the four sides has 1 Hebrew letters on it, which are nun, gimmel, hay, and shin you use it to play dreidel. To play each player gets 10 pieces of gelt. Gelt is candy or nuts children get for Hanukkah. Each player takes turns spinning the dreidel and does what you're supposed to do for whatever letter it is. One wins when someone gets all of the gelt.

All the food they eat is fried to represent the oil in the miracle. They eat latkes or fried potato pancakes with applesauce. The also eat sufganiyot or fried jelly doughnuts.

So now you know some things about Hanukkah. You know about the menorah, the miracle, the dreidel, gelt, and what food they eat. So why don't you share what you learned with others.

Bibliography
Erlbach, Arlene. Hanukkah: Celebrating the Holiday of Lights. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2002.
Rau, Dana. Chanukah. new york: Grolier publishing, 2000.
Simon, Norma. The Story of Hanukkah. Harper Collins publishers, 1997.
(original and unedited)

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Signed,

Wiggles the Polliwog