Tonight starts the holiday of Hanukkah--or Channukah or Hannukah or Chanuka--it's spelled so many different ways and everyone is convinced their spelling is the correct one. Of course, it's all a transliteration of the Hebrew הנוכה . For more of the hows and whys of the different spellings, go here to the post in the Balashon-Hebrew Language Detective blog or here to Andy Carvin's blogpost "Chanukah vs. Hanukkah Death Match: The Great Spelling Shift"
Because of it's proximity to Christmas, Hanukkah now occupies a more important place on the Jewish calendar than is really warranted. The ancient writings that tell the story of Hanukkah are not included in the final version Jewish bible. The First and Second Books of the Maccabees are part of the Apocrypha, the books that are found in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Jewish Bible. I have never read the books of the Maccabees, but I plan to read them as part of my Hanukkah ritual this year.
Another part of my Hanukkah ritual this year involves this blog. Each night I will share with you some Hanukkah related item I find on the web. I am going to try to get something visual for each post--a video or cartoon--but at the least there will be some interesting and hopefully fun offering.
For the first night I've selected an animated piece, "My Menorah." For authenticity sake, I wish it was "My Hanukkiah" but then the song wouldn't work.
Enjoy, and Happy Hanukkah!!
2 comments:
Wait -- now how do you pronounce "Hanukiah"? Same # of syllables as "my menorah"???
You're right, Nancy--Hanukkiah is the same number of syllables as "my menorah." But since the song being spoofed is "My Sheronah" I think "My Menorah" is still a better fit.
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