The Jewish festival of Hanukkah is upon us, and this is how you celebrate it.
The meaning
Dates
The menorah
Food
The dreidel
Gifts
The meaning
Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights. It celebrates the defeat of the Syrian Greeks, who had taken over the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and outlawed Jewish practices, by the Maccabees, an army of Jewish rebels, in 164 BCE.
You may have seen Hanukkah spelt several different ways, including Hanukkah, Hannuka, and Chanukah. This is because Hanukkah is a Hebrew word meaning dedication and there is no direct English translation.
Dates
Hanukkah is based on the Hebrew calendar. Despite always starting on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev, in the Georgian calendar this can translate to anywhere from late November to late December. This year Hanukkah begins on Thursday 10th December 2020, and will end on Friday 18th December 2020.
The menorah
The menorah was a seven-branched candelabra that lit the ancient temple in Jerusalem. It was lit only by a specially, ritually-pure, olive oil that took over a week to prepare. After the Maccabees defeated the Greeks and rededicated the temple to God, legend has it that they found a small amount of this pure oil. Normally, the small amount that they found would only have lit the menorah for one day, however, somewhat miraculously, the menorah stayed lit for eight days. This provided enough time for more oil to be prepared.
To celebrate the miracle of the menorah staying lit, Jews light nine-branched menorah’s, called hanukkiah, for all eight days of the festival.
Food
During Hanukkah, the sacred oil that lit the menorah is also celebrated by eating fried food. The two most traditional foods to eat are latkes, fried potato pancakes, and sufganiyot, jelly donuts.
The dreidel
The dreidel is a small spinning top which children often play with at Hanukkah.
Prior to the Maccabees defeating the Greeks, Jews were forbidden from worshipping God or studying the Torah. Despite this, they continued to read the Torah, but simply hid their scrolls away if a Greek was nearby and played with a spinning top.
Today, dreidel’s are played with to commemorate this time, and are marked with 4 Hebrew letters which stand for the phrase, nes gadol haya sham- A great miracle happened here.
Gifts
Giving gifts was never a Hanukkah tradition, until the rise of Christmas gift-giving prompted American Jews to begin giving gifts at Hanukkah. Traditionally, Jews would give their relatives gelt (money) on Hanukkah. To acknowledge this tradition, many Jews will exchange gifts and give gelt in the form of chocolate coins.
Happy Hanukkah from the whole Laundryheap team.
If you would like a helping hand with your laundry, book your Laundryheap service by heading to the Laundryheap website, or downloading the free Laundryheap app.
With festival season being, close to, completely cancelled because of COVID19, it’s time to bring the festival fun to you. Grab your tents, glitter, and music, because this is how you can host a festival at home.
Give your festival a name
Make access passes
Create a map
Pick your line-up
Get your house festival-ready
Set activities
Get yourself festival-ready
Dine al-fresco
Stick with camping
Document the journey
Give your festival a name
Begin planning your stay-at-home festival by naming it. Don’t stress yourself out too much about creating a funny or witty name, something simple will do just fine. Naming your festival will simply put a name to the event and make it more official.
Make access passes
It’s always nice to have memorabilia from a festival. Despite your festival taking place in your own home, and with limited guests due to COVID rules, making access passes is a fun way to commemorate the event. Make your passes by either drawing or create a simple graphic. Print your graphic on plain paper or card and fold it into a small rectangle. If you have access to a laminator, laminate the pass to avoid it becoming damaged by spilled drinks or general wear and tear. Finally, attach your passes to some string, or a lanyard if you have one, and hand them out to your festival-goers. Don’t forget to remind them that without their passes they can’t access the festival, so they must be worn at all times.
It may seem silly to create a map for your festival when it’s being hosted in your own home, but it’s part of the festival experience. Draw a simple layout of your house and pinpoint the areas where events will take place. You could even create a breakdown of which bands you will be playing at certain points of the day, just like in a real festival program. Similarly to the access passes, creating a map will provide your festival-goers with a small token from the festival that they can keep.
Pick your line-up
You can’t have a festival without music. Unfortunately, you can’t have any live performances, unless someone in your social bubble is a musician. Luckily, there are a few music streaming options that will provide all the tunes your festival needs.
Firstly, many festivals that have been cancelled due to COVID have been showing performances from past acts. For example, Radio 1’s Big Weekend is available to watch on IPlayer. You could create your perfect festival line-up by going through performances from festivals past and playing those for your guests.
Alternatively, you could create your own playlists using a streaming service. This way it is completely up to you which songs to include in your set. Regardless of your decision, make sure that you have a headline act that is worth sticking around for.
You can’t host a festival without getting your house adequately festival-ready. Make a stage for your virtual bands to perform on by using a chair or table to prop a laptop on. Pitch a tent in your garden and allocate camping space for those staying at the festival. Use fairy lights to illuminate your food court and stage area. Create an outdoor seating area using throw pillows and blankets. Finally, finish off creating the festival vibe by using colourful streamers and banners to decorate the area. You want to create a new experience for your festival-goers, so get creative with your decorations.
Set activities
When visiting a festival there are usually activities that can be done between seeing performances. These can be anything from face/glitter painting to playing human-sized Jenga. Plan some activities throughout the day that can involve all of your festival-goers. Do some face-painting, play some games and, most importantly, have fun with it. Make sure that your activities are appropriate for all ages so that any children at the festival can join in.
Get yourself festival-ready
Part of the fun of festivals is dressing up for them. Think flamboyant but comfortable. Shorts, feathers, sequins, tassels, and, of course, a pair of wellies. You want to be prepared for all weather conditions, so it’s best to wear something lightweight for the sun, but also have a waterproof coat on-hand for the rain. The most important thing to remember when getting ready for your festival is… you can NEVER wear too much glitter.
Eating at festivals is all about grabbing something easy to eat at a food truck and dining Al-Fresco. Set up a BBQ and have burgers, hot dogs and other easy-to-eat delicious BBQ foods available for your festival-goers. Create your very own food court and let your guests lounge on throw pillows and blankets whilst they enjoy some, much-needed, festival food before they get back to their raving. The bonus of attending an at-home festival is that you can skip the endless food queues.
Stick with camping
One of the best parts of going to a festival is camping. The joy of a stay-at-home festival is that you don’t have to camp in a crowded campsite, surrounded by queues of people waiting to use the portaloos in the middle of the night. Upgrade your camping experience by creating a calming campsite that your festival guests can enjoy. Pitch some tents and make them comfortable and cosy. Leave out plenty of sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets for your guests to snuggle up in, and light your tents with a multitude of fairy lights. You want to give your festival-goers a relaxing area to wind-down after a day of partying to their favourite artists.
Finally, make sure that you document your festival journey. Your festival is bound to be a lot of fun for yourself and your guests, so make sure that you capture plenty of photos and videos to remind you of what you created. You could even go live on Facebook and Instagram and share parts of your festival experience with your followers.
The joy of a stay-at-home festival is that there is less chance of your clothes getting covered in mud from staying in a field all weekend. If you do happen to get muddy during your festival, let us take care of your clothing. Book a Laundryheap hot wash service by heading to the Laundryheap website or by downloading the free Laundryheap app.
