Happy Hanukkah in two languages, English and Chinese.
A Jewish celebration
The Hanukkah holiday is more than one day. Hanukkah is known as the wintertime “festival of lights.” What is Hanukkah? Hanukkah is in honor of a victorious battle for religious freedom which happened 2,000 years ago. The Hanukkah holiday lasts eight days.
Tradition of Hanukkah
Families will place a menorah by the window. Menorah holds candles. It holds eight candles plus one for lighting the rest. You can see it in the picture below.
The one that is used to light the rest of the candles is usually a little higher or lower than the others. However, we don’t see the height difference on the coloring page below. In Chinese, it is referred to as “pú rén dēng 僕人燈 | 仆人灯” which means servant candle, “shamash.” This one candle is used to light the other candles.
How do you light the candles? Below you will find out how. Children can use the printable and color each candle accordingly during the celebration.
Click on the image to download the coloring page
Lighting the Candles
Families light one candle on the first day and they will light two candles on the second day. Three candles on the third day, …etc. Lighting the candles from left to right as you face the menorah. The menorah is placed on the windowsill for people to see.
Game for Hanukkah
Children play dreidel (with Sevivon song), a four-sided top. Dreidel means “to turn around” in Yiddish. There is a Hebrew letter printed on each of the four sides of a Dreidel. The letters on a Dreidel are נ (nun), ג (gimel), ה (hei), ש (shin) and they are the first letter of each word in the phrase, Nes gadol hayah sham, which means a great miracle happened there.
How to Play Dreidel
Here is a video shared by Rabbi Spike Anderson
Songs for Hanukkah
Celebrating with joy and songs! There are traditional Hanukkah songs. Families also recite blessings on the Hanukkah menorah. You can listen to the songs and experience the music and blessings here.
The Story of Hanukkah in Mandarin Chinese
Happy Hanukkah with a song
Special Dishes for Hanukkah
Just like Chinese people eat special food during different cultural festivals and celebrations. People around the world do the same. For the Jewish community, fried food is a highlight for parties during Hanukkah! Why? That is because of the oil. It is important to know that oil has a significant meaning in the Hanukkah story. It is the small jug of oil that miraculously lasted for eight days in Temple Menorah.
So what are some dishes you should know and maybe give it a try?
Potato pancakes, “latkes.” Latkes taste so good with applesauce! The one I tried was pan-fried.
Also, Round jelly donuts, “sufganiyot!” Yum! These are deep-fried.
These are a couple of traditional treats. They are fried in oil. We need to remember that oil symbolizes the miracle of the Hanukkah holiday.
Chinese phrases for Hanukkah
Look at the picture below. Talk about Hannukah and each item. Have the kids talk about what they see in the picture. Special thanks to a fellow teacher, Pamela Rose for sharing her knowledge about Hanukkah with us.
Explore the history and story of Hanukkah together as a family, as a class, as a kids’ literacy center group.
Discussion Questions: (download printables)
**Discussion Topic Sheet in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, pinyin, and English. Download with the button below.
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Happy Hanukkah! (Use: cultural festivals)
Is your family’s Hanukkah menorah big? (Use: adjectives and color words)
Assign one person to draw pictures.
How do you play dreidel?
Compare the differences between a regular top and dreidel? (use: adjectives and color words)
Compare the different ways of playing with a regular top and a dreidel. (use: different verbs)
光明節有什麼特別的食物呢？
What are some special dishes for Hanukkah?
What are the ingredients used for each dish? How is it prepared? (use: cooking methods: frying, frying, roasting, steaming, stir-frying and ingredients)
Is the dish sweet or salty? (Use: seasoning words)
Do you go to a Jewish school? (Use: Words of the week and languages – Chinese, Chinese, Korean…)
Can you speak Hebrew? (Use: Language Chinese, Chinese, Korean…)
World Language and World Culture
Connect the culture in your home. Discuss multicultural class culture with your students.
Invite your students from different cultural backgrounds to talk about each of their unique cultures during the holiday season.
Happy Hanukkah!
Happy Festival of Lights!
Explore more in the World Culture for Children series!
World Culture Happy Hanukkah!
Beautiful summary of a meaningful tradition. I will talk to my kids about it tonight.
Flor, World language connect the world! We are learning so much about our own culture from cultures around us. Is it amazing?