There are many holidays that people celebrate and that are meaningful to them. Many of my friends love to celebrate Easter, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. I agree with my friends about loving to celebrate Thanksgiving but because I am Jewish I love to celebrate Passover, Chanukkah, and Thanksgiving. In addition to the importance of these three holidays due to their religious and historical significance these three wonderful holidays bring together friends and family in order to catch up on what’s happening in the family and in order to eat great food and drink great beverages. It is kind of funny actually that today Chanukkah is very well known by most people in regards to it being a Jewish holiday; however they are unfamiliar with the specifics regarding the story of Channukah. In fact, many of my friends have asked me many questions about the story behind Chanukkah. I feel much honored that my friends and co workers are so interested in such an important Jewish holiday. This proves to me that people generally wish to educate themselves with information that they don’t know instead closing themselves off to an exciting new culture and exciting information.

Here is another funny little tidbit about my experience with other and the Jewish holiday of Chanukkah. I remember moving to Santee California from Chicago Illinois when I was seven. My mom and I went into a store to purchase some Christmas and Chanukkah greeting cards. We couldn’t locate the latter type of greeting card so we asked a salesperson where the Chanukkah greeting cards were located. What happened next surprised me, but not in a good way. The salesperson looked at us as if we had asked when the next plane for Mars was leaving instead of just asking about greeting cards. The salesperson asked us what Chanukkah was and when it was celebrated because she had never heard of this Jewish holiday. At this point, my mom and I were a little concerned that the woman hadn’t ever seen or talked to people who were Jewish before us. Therefore, my mom tried to explain the Jewish holiday of Chanukkah. I think that my mom’s explanation of this wonderful Jewish holiday confused her even more. This is because she shrugged her shoulders and told us that not only were there no Chanukkah greeting cards but she also said that she didn’t even know how to spell the word Chanukkah. This didn’t surprise either of us because there are many different spelling of the word Chanukkah. However, many people spell this word wrong, even some Jewish people who love celebrating Chanukkah each year in order to retell this historical and religious story while eating the traditional foods and playing the traditional games of the wonderful Jewish holiday of Chanukkah. In fact, I love eating potato pancakes, chocolate, blintzes, and lighting the menorah for eight nights. In addition, I have even made a dredel out of clay in my Hebrew school art class. I don’t think that spelling the word Chanukkah is as import as learning about the Jewish culture through the fascinating story of Chanukkah. By the way both Chanukkah and Channukah are the wrong spelling of this word. Hanukah is spelled like this. Have a happy Hanukah.