Kindling Lights
The only ritual associated with Hanukkah is the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah (properly called a hanukkiah). The shamash candle is the first candle to be lit. The first night, another candle is set in the extreme right side of the menorah. The shamash candle is used to light the other candles. The menorah is kindled at sundown each night of Hanukkah. On Shabbat, light the Hanukkah candles before lighting the Shabbat candles (because traditionally one did not make a fire on Shabbat).
The Dreidel
The dreidel is a 4-sided top that is used in a game of chance traditionally played on Hanukkah. Each side has a different Hebrew letter: nun, gimmel, hei, and shin. These letters stand for the Hebrew words: nes gadol hayah sham: "A great miracle happened there." In Israel, dreidels have the letter pei in place of the sham, so that the sentence is: nes gadol hayah po: "A great miracle happened here." The letters on the dreidel also stand for the instructions (in Yiddish) for the game for which it is used: nicht (nothing), gantz (all), halb (half), shtel (put).
The word "driedel" comes from the German word dreihen (to spin). The dreidel was a popular toy in medieval Germany. Historians claim that the dreidel was originally a 3-sided top used as a German Christmas toy. The game itself is not German in origin, but rather, the Germans borrowed the game from the Greeks and Romans.
To play the dreidel game:
The players choose the tokens to be used (pennies, nuts, candy, etc.) and each player places the same amount of this item into a central pot. Then each player takes a turn spinning the dreidel. If the dreidel falls on nun, the player gets nothing; if it lands on gimmel, he gets all of the pennies, etc; if it lands on hei, he gets half; and if it lands on shin, he has to put in one penny (or whatever amount the group decided at the beginning of the game). When the pot is empty, everybody antes up again. The game ends when one player has all of the pennies or whoever has the most pennies after a predetermined amount of time.
Hanukkah gelt
Traditionally on Hanukkah, children received gelt (money). This tradition began long before Christmas became so commercialized and overwhelming. The practice is possibly a commemoration of the first coins that were made by the Hasmoneans when Judea became an independent state.
The Book of Judith
It was customary among Sephardic women and some east European women to read the Book of Judith (a book of the Apocrypha) on Hanukkah. Judith, a beautiful widow, seduced Holofernes, the commander of an Assyrian army. She then fed him salty cheese which induced him to drink a lot of wine. After he fell asleep, Judith decapitated him. When his men saw Holofernes' headless body, they retreated. The story is told at Hanukkah because the Book of Judith comes from the Apocrypha (as do the First and Second Books of Maccabees) and because of the military victory. The Sephardim read this story on the seventh night of Hanukkah; east European women on the eighth.
