hannihar
Hi,
It is almost Hannuka time. When I was growing up they did not have fancy dreidls like they have now. I played with wooden ones that it was spin around. The letters on the dreidl mean that a miracle happened. Instead of the oil burning for one night it burned for 8 days and that is why we light a candle each night for 8 days. Nowadays the dreidls are lasers and move around and light up and sign in Hebrew.
I wanted to help you understand about how our dreidls work. I am putting a picture of the laser one I bought for Sophie and myself to enjoy for Hannuka and also an example of one I grew up with playing.
Sophie, by the way, loves it and was very fascinated by it. She loved that it lit up and it moved around.
Happy Hannukah! I read, influenced by, and observed with my friends about Jewish festivals and feasts, God’s Appointed Times.
Thank you for this beautiful reminder about Hanukkah, Hanninar.
Both types seem like a lot of fun! Are they only used during Hanukkah?
Cats love laser lights, not familiar with the dreidls.
I have a wooden dreidl just like the one pictures. I’ve never seen a laser one! But, is it just mine, or are all dreidls (dreidlen?) weighted – so that two of the sides are favoured and come up more often, but… only if you spin it clockwise?
Norman, I discovered laser dreidls here in Israel. I used to sell things so I would get laser dreidls called sevivon in Hebrew for Hannuka. I grew up with the wooden ones. Now because if technology they have laser ones that spin around and light up and sing in Hebrew. I do not think it lands on any side on purpose.
Then my one is badly made, but it is a lot of fun, and I could take quite a bit of money from people in bets if that was in my nature 🙂
Rachael, that sounds like fun. That is one way to play it when lasers were not around. We had to invent our own way to have fun with it and you did it with pennies.
Happy Chanukah! We used to play the Dreydel game with pennies. The one who got the most got to go to the corner candy store and buy sweets that we would share all around!