Hanukkah

On Monday evening some of the Jewish students at my school invited anyone who was interested to celebrate Hanukkah.
I realised that I didn't really know much about Hanukkah and decided to go.
It was especially fun because I went early and helped make all of the food.

We ate some of the traditional dishes:
Sufganiyot (jelly filled doughnuts)

and latkas (fried potatoes)

It was a particularly interesting evening because there are quite a few Americans who are ethnically/culturally Jewish, but not religiously Jewish. They all talked about what they do at home and about the traditions they have.

They talked about what the food represented and also about orthodox Jewish dress and the meaning of kippahs. We didn't have any real kippahs, so some people used napkins instead.

Almog (Israel) - the girl with the long hair, and Hannah (Austria/Italy) -the one in the striped top - shared the story of the oil that burned for eight days and that is the reason for Hanukkah. Almog also tried to teach us a song in Hebrew, but we were pretty terrible.

We didn't have a real menorah, or enough candles, but we made due with some clay and birthday candles.

And at the end of the evening we played with the dreidel.

It is day like these that remind me how amazing my school is!