Happy second night of Hannukah, everyone! Tonight, I got this black turtleneck sweater, which is super cozy and which also makes me feel like Ziva from NCIS (my current favorite TV show). Fellow Jewish friends, if your family gives gifts (I know not everyone does), what have you gotten so far?

@Sammy, something about the way you said "Jewish believers" rubbed me the wrong way. It sounds kind of like what some (SOME) Christians say when they're like "this is the only true belief and if you don't believe it, bad things will happen to you." I don't know if that's what you meant, but it made me uncomfortable.

@Fidelity, I know Sammy already answered your question, but I'd like to add-- basically any food fried in oil!

In case you didn't know, the story of Hannukah goes that this evil king, Antiochus IV, forced all the Jews in his land (I think Greece, but I can't remember) to give up their religion and assimilate. The Maccabees fought back and won despite all odds, and they tried to reclaim the Temple (the Second Temple? Again, I can't quite remember). Unfortunately, it had been totally trashed by the Greeks. There was supposed to be an eternal light in the temple that always stayed lit, and it required a special oil. But there was only enough oil to last one day, and it took eight days to make more. Miraculously, the one night's worth of oil lasted all eight nights! To celebrate, we light candles for eight nights (or oil, if you're being traditional) and eat lots of oily food. :)

@Majestic Mary, playing dreidel and having Hannukah parties can happen on any night! So can eating food like latkes or sufganiyot, and giving gifts (if your family does). Really the only thing that has to happen each night is lighting candles.

@Lupine, the most important Jewish holidays are Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of fasting and repentance... I think there's a fancy name, but I can't remember). Those are the holidays I miss school for to go to services! I'm not a big Jewish scholar, so I'm not sure which other holidays are generally considered to be significant, but others I know of include Sukkot (eight days, harvest festival), Passover (also eight days, celebrating the exodus from Egypt; we don't eat bread products for the length of the holiday, and we have one or two seders [basically fancy dinners with storytelling and prayers], depending on how observant you are), Simchat Torah (when you reset the Torah and start back over again), and Purim (another they tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat holiday; sometimes involves dressing up and having purim spiels, which retell the story).

This got rather long... thank you for reading through it all, Admins!

I've traditionally heard Yom Kippur called the Day of Atonement. Maybe that's the "fancy name" you mean.

Admin

Yeah, it also kind of made me feel a bit uncomfortable . . .

Some more important holidays then the overrated importance-wise Hanukkah:

Yom Kippur: I *think* this is the most important one. It comes a bit after Rosh hashana, the Jewish New Years, and is a day when we apologize and fast.

Pesach (or "Passover"): This holiday celebrates spring time and the Jews coming out of Egypt, so basicly the story in the Torah, specifically the second book. There is a "Seder" (order).

Shabbat: This is the day of rest when you are not supposed to work. It is often overlooked/people forget it's a holiday because it happens every week but it is very important.

Sukkot: I'm pretty sure this one it important. It celebrates both the harvest and how, when wandering through the desert, the Jews would stay in temperary huts, "sukkahs," which we build every year to remember that.

There are other holidays, of course, i.e. Purim, Rosh Hashsana, Lag B'omer, Shavuot, Tu'b'shavt . . . (that's a lot of exapmles, isn't it) but these are some of the most important ones. 

About the "yoda'at" think -- it's transliteration, not the actual word, but it mwans "know.' 

I love Hanukkah! The food is good, dreidel is fun, and I love the candles. Technically, my family is not Jewish, but we celebrate Hannukah and many other Jewish holidays. 

@Kitten and Feline Fantasy, those holidays ring a bell but I never knew what they were for! They sound really cool.

I just made sufganiot for the first time, and YUM.

Welcome to Day 4.