Maya Celebrates Hanukkah

The last day of school before winter vacation had finally arrived and everyone felt excited, everyone except Maya. She sat listening to her friends talking about what they would be doing for Christmas during their vacation.

“As soon as I get home my mom and I will be baking cookies and then going carolling,” Jemima said.

“We’re going shopping on the weekend to finish buying our Christmas presents,” James said.

“My brothers and I are going to put up our Christmas tree tonight!” Chantelle squealed with delight. Several people giggled.

“Mine’s been up since the beginning of December,” Conner grinned. Maya was happy for them, all of their plans sounded wonderful. But she wouldn’t get to do anything like that this Christmas. Her Christmas tree wasn’t even set up this year. Instead, her family was going to stay with her grandparents.

Maya’s father’s family all celebrated Christmas, and they had spent the last few winter vacations with them. However, Bubbe and Zayde, her mother’s parents, were Jewish and did not celebrate Christmas. Instead, they celebrated something called Hanukkah. Even though Maya’s mother was Jewish, she didn’t really know very much about the culture. As she rode the El home after school in the afternoon with her mom, bundled up in her warmest winter coat against the Chicago chill, she looked out at all of the beautiful Christmas decorations.

“I guess I’ll have to wait until next year to have Christmas” Maya thought to herself.

Her grandparents lived on the other side of Chicago, so they had to drive there. They left their house in the early evening, and Maya gazed through the frosty car windows at all of the beautiful twinkling Christmas lights strung up on houses, apartments, and along the street. She wondered if there would be any twinkling lights at her grandparent’s house

“Probably not,” she thought sadly.

“We’re here Maya,” her mom said from the front seat. Maya looked out the window as they pulled up in front of a white, two-story house. Maya sighed, feeling a little disappointed. She didn’t expect to see Christmas lights, but she would have liked to. Instead, the porch of her grandparent’s house was dark, only slightly illuminated by the light coming from the windows. As they climbed out of the car, her grandparents came out onto the porch to welcome them.

“I am so glad you are spending Hanukkah with us. Your cousins Nathan and Eliana and their friend Eloise are also spending the holiday with us,” her grandmother said, wrapping Maya up in a big cuddle. Maya smiled. She enjoyed spending time with her cousins, little Nathan was only two and very cute. Besides, other people spent time with their families over Christmas, so at least she was doing something similar.

Maya spent the next two days playing with her two cousins and their neighbour. Then on Sunday afternoon, her grandparents got them all bundled up in their coats.

“Where are we going Zayde?” Maya asked her grandfather.

“Down to the square to see the menorah lighting,” he replied. Maya wanted to ask him what he meant, but Nathan begged to be picked up, so her grandfather turned to him.

“I guess I’ll find out when we get there,” Maya thought to herself. When they arrived at the square, a huge crowd had gathered. Maya swept her eyes over the people, all gathered together in the cold winter air.

“I wonder what could be so important that people would come out in the cold?” she thought, as a group of boys started singing a beautiful song. Maya listened as they sang in their sweet voices. She couldn’t quite catch the words, but the song made her smile. When they had finished singing, the attention of the crowd was drawn to a large silver shape in the centre of the square. Maya thought it looked like Lumiere from her favourite movie Beauty and the Beast, except this candelabra, had nine arms on it.

“Eliana, what’s that?” She whispered to her cousin.

“It’s called a menorah, we light one candle every night during Hanukkah,” she replied.

“Why?” Maya asked.

“Oh, it’s a perfectly beautiful story,” Eliana said, “A long time ago, in Israel, there was a very beautiful temple. There was also a wicked king, Antiochus of Syria. The king didn’t like people having different beliefs than him, so he travelled around forcing everyone to believe and act as he did. The king brought his army to Israel and commanded for the beautiful temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed, along with all other Jewish temples, and told the Jewish people they had to give up their own customs and beliefs and follow his.”

“Anyone who disobeyed King Antiochus’ orders was punished. Most people obeyed him because they were scared, but there were some Jewish people who stood up to him. Judah Maccabee and his brothers made their own army and fought the Syrians. Even though they were a smaller army, the Maccabees knew they were doing the right thing, and they fought with everything they had. They defeated the evil king and his army and kicked them out of Jerusalem. Judah and his people were very sad when they entered the beautiful temple for the first time because the army had destroyed it.”

“While they cleaned up, they found one small container of oil. They didn’t think it would be enough oil to light the lamps for even one night, but they lit them anyway. But, instead of going out, the lamps kept burning. They burned for two nights, and then for three. The Maccabees kept expecting them to go out, but they ended up burning for eight days and eight nights. Because of the lamps and the miracle with the oil, the Maccabees knew their God was with them.“

“And that,” came her grandmother’s voice from behind them, “is why we celebrate Hanukkah every year and the reason why we light eight candles in our menorahs. We remember the miracle of the oil, and we remember we are strong enough to fight intolerance. Well done telling the story Eliana,” she said, giving both girls a hug.

Maya stood with her family and watched as the Mayor took the middle candle, and used it to light the first candle on the right-hand side of the menorah. Everyone cheered, and the choir began singing another song. Maya’s grandma bustled off to a food truck and came back with hot, jelly doughnuts for everyone. Maya slowly ate hers as they walked back home. They arrived back at the house and went into the family room to light their own menorah. As they sipped on hot chocolate and listened to her grandfather read from the Torah, Maya thought maybe celebrating Hanukkah with her family would be just as fun as Christmas.

Over the next week, Maya enjoyed learning more about the traditions of her grandparents and lighting another candle on the menorah each day. Their grandparents gave them gifts, each night. Her favourite was a dreidel, a little spinning top she and her cousins played together with and held competitions. Their grandma kept them busy in the kitchen, making latkes and doughnuts. She explained how they made these foods cooked in oil to remember the oil used to burn the lamps in the temple. On Wednesday, when other people were celebrating Christmas Day, her grandfather took Maya, Eliana and Eloise down to the local shelter and they helped to hand out a special Christmas meal to people who didn’t have anywhere else to go. Maya really enjoyed being able to help other people, especially on a day where she would normally only be worried about opening presents and eating Christmas pudding.

“I’m so glad you got to spend the winter vacation with us, Maya,” Eliana said to her as they ate chocolate coins on the last day of Hanukkah. “Have you enjoyed it?”

Maya nodded. “I was upset when my mom and dad told me I wouldn’t get to celebrate Christmas this year. I thought I was missing out on all of the twinkling lights and the carolling and the Christmas cookies and the tree and everything. But I have had so much fun learning about Hanukkah and spending time with you and Nathan.”

“I guess you did sort of get some of those things,” Eliana said looking thoughtful. “You didn’t have Christmas lights, but you did get to light candles on the menorah.”

“We had the choir singing to us on the first night too, it was even better than carols,” Maya smiled.

“We still got presents too,” said Eloise, spinning her dreidel.

“And there was lots of yummy food, and spending time with our family. I guess it doesn’t matter whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or something else or nothing else, every family has their own traditions and their own things they believe and like to do together,” said Maya. “I can’t wait to go back to school after winter vacation and tell everyone about all the awesome things we did together during Hanukkah!”