[Teachldsseminary] HANUKKAH Dec. 5-12

[TERRY L HAYNIE]

My class and I will be celebrating Hannukah this year.  We have an electric menorah that is lit during class time and at night in the window of our room(I use a timer). I will be giving gifts each of the eight days to my students. This year I am giving a dreidel with gelt, a keychain with the 10 commandments on it, cookies in the shape of the Star of David, a pillowcase with CTR on it, small gifts from the dollar store for one day, a bookmark about the Savior, a free pass for an absence, and the nail poem from this site. I always try to end my gifting with a picture or something to testify of Christ. My students love celebrating this holiday and we do go over the history behind it. The only bad thing about doing this is that it makes BoM year and D&C years pretty slim. We do have a pioneer christmas for D&C, but BoM is really hard. I purchased my dreidels several weeks ago, but you can find patterns for them on the internet. "Days of Awe" is great resource too.
Sharon Haynie
Del Norte   CO
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linda Harper<mailto:lindaharper at bellsouth.net> 
  To: 'Free Email list for LDS Seminary Teachers'<mailto:teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com> 
  Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 9:12 AM
  Subject: [Teachldsseminary] HANUKKAH Dec. 5-12


  Does anyone have a plan or ideas or activity for Hanukkah starting this
  Wednesday?   I know it's not one of the original holidays found in the OT,
  but my  students usually ask about what it is so I give a short explanation
  each year.

   

  I wondered if anyone has adapted the Dradel game to be a SM game?

   

  Here's information I have but haven't figured out how to use the game as a
  SM game.

   

  Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days and nights, starting on the 25th of
  Kislev on the Hebrew calendar (which is November-December on the Gregorian
  calendar). In Hebrew, the word "Hanukkah" means "dedication." The holiday
  commemorates the rededication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem after the
  Jews' 165 B.C. victory over the Hellenist Syrians. Antiochus, the Greek King
  of Syria, outlawed Jewish rituals and ordered the Jews to worship Greek
  gods.

  In 168 B.C. the Jews' holy Temple was seized and dedicated to the worship of
  Zeus.

  Some Jews were afraid of the Greek soldiers and obeyed them, but most were
  angry and decided to fight back.

  The fighting began in Modiin, a village not far from Jerusalem. A Greek
  officer and soldiers assembled the villagers, asking them to bow to an idol
  and eat the flesh of a pig, activities forbidden to Jews. The officer asked
  Mattathias, a Jewish High Priest, to take part in the ceremony. He refused,
  and another villager stepped forward and offered to do it instead.
  Mattathias became outraged, took out his sword and killed the man, then
  killed the officer. His five sons and the other villagers then attacked and
  killed the soldiers. Mattathias' family went into hiding in the nearby
  mountains, where many other Jews who wanted to fight the Greeks joined them.
  They attacked the Greek soldiers whenever possible.

  Judah Maccabee and his soldiers went to the holy Temple, and were saddened
  that many things were missing or broken, including the golden menorah. They
  cleaned and repaired the Temple, and when they were finished, they decided
  to have a big dedication ceremony. For the celebration, the Maccabees wanted
  to light the menorah. They looked everywhere for oil, and found a small
  flask that contained only enough oil to light the menorah for one day.
  Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days. This gave them enough time to
  obtain new oil to keep the menorah lit. Today Jews celebrate Hanukkah for
  eight days by lighting candles in a menorah every night, thus commemorating
  the eight-day miracle.

   

  The modern home celebration of Chanukah centers around the lights of the
  Chanukah, a special menorah for Chanukah; unique foods, latkes and jelly
  doughnuts; and special songs and games, including the dreidel game.

   

  DRADEL GAME

  (a four sided top that you spin and how it lands means different things: 

  Distribute the tokens evenly among all of the players. The tokens can be any
  little thing: pennies, nuts, raisins, matchsticks, etc. 

  Direct each player to place one token in the middle of the circle to create
  "the pot." 

  Take turns spinning the dreidel. (In some variations of the game, it always
  starts with the youngest player.) The dreidel will land in such a way that
  one and only one letter shows on top. According to the letter appearing, the
  player should perform the following action:

   Nun in the game of dreidel means you get nothing.

   Shin in the game of dreidel means you put one into the pot. 

   Gimel in the game of dreidel means you get everything from the pot.

   Heh in the game of dreidel means you get half of everything from the pot.

   

   

  TIPS:

  If the pot empties, or has only one token left, each player should put
  another token in the pot. 

  If a player runs out of tokens, he either leaves the game or takes a loan of
  tokens from another player. 

  A fun variation is to use chocolate instead of coins, so you can eat your
  winnings when the game ends. 

  In Israel, the letter shin is usually replaced with the letter peh for the
  word "poh" to create the phrase "a great miracle happened here." 

  In another version of the game, you may match the pot when Shin appears, and
  put one in when Nun appears. 

  In Yiddish, the dreidel is also called "fargle" and "varfl." In Israel, the
  Hebrew term "sevivon" (from the root meaning "turn around or spin") is used.


   

   

  _______________________________________________
  FREE teachldsseminary email list sponsored by Latter-dayVillage.com
  teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com<mailto:teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com>
  http://latter-dayvillage.com/mailman/listinfo/teachldsseminary_latter-dayvillage.com<http://latter-dayvillage.com/mailman/listinfo/teachldsseminary_latter-dayvillage.com>
  or http://tinyurl.com/bemmh<http://tinyurl.com/bemmh>  

  List archives at http://latter-dayvillage.com/pipermail/teachldsseminary_latter-dayvillagecom/<http://latter-dayvillage.com/pipermail/teachldsseminary_latter-dayvillage.com/>
  or http://tinyurl.com/7dpqf<http://tinyurl.com/7dpqf> 

  List FAQ:
  http://latter-dayvillage.com/support/users/kb.php?category_id=3<http://latter-dayvillage.com/support/users/kb.php?category_id=3>