Welcome to my Chanukah Coutndown Party!
I'm so excited to be celebrating 2 weeks of Chanukah posts, giveaways, and just general fun. Make sure to check back here every day because I have something great to give away all week and all throughout Chanukah!
I am sure that you knew the traditional food of Chanukah is latkes and/or sufganiyot. Latkes are potato pancakes, fried in oil. Sufganiyot are jelly-filled donuts, also fried in oil. The oil is the key, of course, because of the mythology of the oil and its important role in the story of the holiday.
But did you know that it's also customary to eat dairy foods on Chanukah too? You might be thinking, um, Ima, isn't that Shavuot? Yes, we eat dairy on that holiday too, but for different reasons. This is a really rockin' girl-power reason:
The Story of Judith.
Unfortunately, it's not that cut-and-dried - we don't know what really happened, we have two different versions of the story and it's all apocryphal.
During a siege of the city of Bethulia (which we know nothing about), the supposedly beautiful widow Judith is determined to save her people by assassinating the Assyrians' general, Holofernes. She left the city with the intent to seduce the general. Holofernes invited her into his tent for a nice meal, intending to seduce her. Judith waited until he fell into a drunken sleep, grabbed his sword, and cut off his head, bringing it in a sack back to her town, which turned the tide of the battle. Hooray!
The other version of the story goes like this: Every virgin bride (in the other she was a widow, note) prior to marriage was obliged to sleep with the Assyrian governor (ew). Judith, when it was her turn, fed the governor cheese which made him sleepy and when he went to sleep, she chopped off his head and saved all her fellow ladies.
Because of Judith's heroism, in whatever way it occurred, it's customary to eat dairy foods on Chanukah. Another good vegetarian holiday, if you ask me!
Today's giveaway...full of food!
Oh Nuts Giveaway - $30 gift certificate to anything on their site!
Oh Nuts is a great company that participated in my Chanukah Countdown last year, and from which my mom ordered a bunch of gifts because if it... (Hi mom!)
They have these really nice Chanukah baskets, and some other stuff too, including these jelly bean dreidels which I think are adorable. (And if you're here and Chanukah isn't your holiday, there are other things for other holidays too as well as coffee, other gifts, and even healthy stuff.) See here what Miriam got from Oh Nuts. You could buy these cute cookies too!
To enter, leave a comment on this post!
Earn an extra entry by tweeting about it. Let me know below in the comments.
Comments will close at 8am Monday, December 15th.
Come back all week and next for some great Chanukah posts and giveaways!Join in the Chanukah Countdown Party - feel free to grab my badge above and link back here with your own Chanukah posts! How do you celebrate, what's your favorite observance, favorite tips and tricks, etc...
Comments closed. The winner is...@kvetchingeditor Chaviva!
Watch your email....
31 comments:
Yummy! I understand there is a Sephardic tradition of using salty cheese.
I'll be tweeeting abt this.
One of this days, I'll host a party too.
Too bad the badge doesn't have an updating countdown of the number of days left to go!
Nice idea for the holiday :)
Oh man do I love ohnuts! I will tweet this for sure. My name there is @kvetchingeditor! Yum!
How fun, count me in :). I tweeted about it too.
I'm in!
Tweeting too @airrikajswan !!
Love me some nuts! Cashews are my weakness.
Tweeted too:
http://twitter.com/auntiethesis/status/1056549265
I'm nutso for da nuts. Freud says I have peanuts envy.
Great giveaway. Thanks!
Tweet-a-tweet-tweet!
http://twitter.com/nape9393/status/1056560836
Count me in!!!!!
Wow thanks for the tip - that website looks amazing. Count me in for the giveaway!
Oh what a great give-away! We're having a huge Hanukah Bash, just life every year,but this year for the first time, we're having it at my house instead of my folks. 50+ guests, and the MEN do all the cooking!
What a great idea. I love Channukah and Chanukkah fun!!!!
I just looked around and they have chocolate in some of their Chanukah baskets. No fair! Now I'm drooling. :-)
I tweeted. :-)
I adore nuts. Any type of nut!!
What fun!! Thanks for sharing. Tweeteed it ;)
Yum-yum! Thanks for entering me.
I am lucky enough to live close to one of the Oh Nuts stores. I am definitely going to tweet about it!
I did not know about the dairy tradition. I thought dairy was Shavuot only. I learned something new.
I only learnt about the dairy a year or two ago. And I keep getting JUdith mixed up with Yael (who killed her man by hammering a nail through his head!)
I like the custom of women not working for half an hour after lighting the candles.
I also Tweeted
https://twitter.com/eshchory
Oh Nuts sounds terrific! Count me in for the drawing. Thanks for the info on the dairy tradition . . . that's new news to me.
cool, count me in! i just tweeted at you (shax0r) to enter the contest an extra time.
This is so fun! I love Hanukkah!
forgot to tell you, I tweeted about it!
No need to enter me. I wanted to pop in and invite you to check out the Musical Hanukkah Celebration my fictional band throws every year (this is the third). I even made t-shirts this year!
Nuts and chocolate = Heaven (or as close as an earthly being can get!)
Mmmm.....chumus.
yum yum yum! I'd love to win this :)
twittered :)
http://twitter.com/valerie2350/status/1058071025
I am absolutely nuts about nuts. ;) Thanx for having this giveaway.
I feel lucky to be celebrating Chanukah with my whole family this year in the snow of Lake Tahoe. Am I lucky enough?
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