Goodbye, Hanukkah

How appropriate that the Jewish festival of light occurred this past week, as my body groaned with exhaustion for want of daylight.

A week ago tonight, I celebrated it, along with my new home, with friends. This in spite of my goyness. Oh, but my family did celebrate this holiday when I was in (Jewish) preschool. I even made a menorah at preschool, and although it was likely a very rough thing it would still be beyond my current craft skills- it's not all progression as you get older, you know. Skills do fall by the wayside. And we lit the menorah on the eight nights. But after preschool it was never the same- I went on to the then Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal- although my family was Catholic, I never went to Catholic school.

But when I was in preschool, I learned that oil figured prominantly in the story of Hanukkah. It's a liberation story, not as fundamental as the Exodus one but telling all the same. Actually, it involves "freedom fighters" (the Maccabees) lauching a guerilla war against the great imperial power of the time- and winning! In those days, political power and religion were almost the same thing, so part of the oppression of the Jews (though they were likely not known as "Jews" at the time, they were the people now known as such) had been the desecration of their Temple by shrines to other gods. So the victorious Maccabees cleaned up the Temple, but then had difficulty finding oil to light all the candles. Miraculously, the small amount of oil they did find provided sufficient to light all the candles.

So it is that part of the celebration involves eating foods cooked in oil. Hence, potato latkes, which are basically potato pancakes fried in oil. I made sweet potato lakes- a slight variation. What I didn't know was the other popular treat used to celebrate the holiday, until a friend of mine came over, fresh from her own celebration, bearing donuts! Oh, right, they're made in oil too...She says they're more popular than latkes in Israel.

So anyway, that's it for Hanukkah. Stay tuned for Christmas....