Beginning at sundown on Sunday, 14 December, Chanukah, aka ‘festival of lights’, is just that – a festival rather than a holiday, steeped in religious worship. The eight-consecutive-night event focuses on celebrating small, seemingly insignificant, victories and everyday miracles. Represented by several symbolic items, including a nine-branched hanukkiah (or menorah, the more generic term which refers to a candelabrum of any kind) with eight candles representing each night of celebration, plus one ‘helper candle’ or shamash that lights them all, each individual light can illuminate the darkness, especially when brought together as a collective.
Over the years, I’ve collected numerous traditions around this festival, including a staple making of fried latkes from a variety of ingredients, from potato to carrot, served hot alongside dips of sour cream and apple sauce that have followed me from childhood into the present. As many multi-cultural families do, our Chanukah celebrations have changed over the years as my non-Jewish husband and I have navigated the blending of our holidays, foods, traditions and celebrations, making sure there was room for all without hierarchy. We’ve since reserved the traditional Chanukah gift-giving for our Jewish grandparents rather than the whole family, turning instead to food and rituals for our festival celebrations. With fried foods and the centre of the holiday, this means inviting friends to partake in latkes fried in oil. The oil represents the oil found that lasted for eight nights rather than just one or two, as part of the rededication of the desecrated Second Temple in Jerusalem circa 168 BCE. Each year, the smell of oil and deep-fried potatoes clings to the walls of our home, hair and clothing for days afterwards, but it always feels worth the effort, no matter how long it lingers.
In 2020, my family added to our rituals in a way that will forever change how I think about the festival. Deep in the throes of the pandemic, in the midst of social distancing, freezing cold weather, and darkness, we took our hanukkiah outside to the waist-high brick wall separating our home from the pavement. Our neighbours, a family of three with a daughter just a year younger than ours, who had become a source of grounding during those unsettling times, met us outside on the opposite side of that brick wall. There in the darkness, we each lit a candle. The wind and rain wouldn’t let them stay lit for long – the tradition being to let the candles burn down completely rather than blow them out – but for a few brief moments, there they were all lit together. There we were, standing in the darkness on the pavement, wrapped up in coats and scarves, mesmerised by the light. So much so, we replicated it the following year, and the year after, gathering outside even when we were once again able to return to each other's homes
Gathering, cooking and eating remain at the centre of Chanukah celebrations across London and far beyond the M25, too.
Cooking and frying
Jewish children everywhere may remember the smells and sounds of lingering in the kitchen as Chanukah festivities got underway, eye level with the fry pan laden with oil, alive with the sizzling sounds of whatever was deep-fried on the go. You don’t have to be Jewish or a child to conjure up these feelings of eager anticipation this Chanukah, thanks to folks like Syrian-born Ukrainian historian, author and cook Alissa Timoshkina. Timoshkina will be hosting a cooking class at her home on 7 December, featuring Chanukah-themed dishes from her latest book, Kapusta, including latkes, knishes, beetroot dips and pickles, and spiced apple cinnamon buns. You can book a place via her Instagram page. You can also catch her at Panzers Deli on 14th December from 11-2pm where she’ll be selling and signing copies of her new book alongside freshly fried spiced apple cinnamon doughnuts. Don’t forget to pick up some of their hand-cut cured salmon to top any of your own latke endeavours.
Jewish Iraqi author Linda Dangoor will be hosting a Zoom panel discussion at 7.30pm on 9th December, to discuss another fried favourite close to her heart — Sambusak’s b’tuwa – an Iraqi deep-fried snack made with chickpeas. Audiences can book via the Harif website.
Eating together
There’s something almost defiantly luxurious about gathering together for a meal during the darkest and coldest time of the year, especially when it would be all too easy to stay inside our own homes under blankets until springtime. Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co are at it again, hosting a Chanukah-themed supper club on 14 December with the cosiest, deep-fried-est of menus, including zalabia, latkes, short ribs (or aubergine for veggies) and doughnuts.
Srulovich says, “Hanukkah is one of the most special traditions in the Jewish calendar and a personal favourite of ours. This festival of light and fire is the cosiest time of the year - it’s about coming together for companionship, warmth, and, needless to say, the most delicious food. In our Hanukkah Supper Club menu, we wanted to feature some of the tastiest traditions from different Jewish diasporas, that may be familiar to some and new to others, but delicious to all... “
For those looking for a twist, East London pickle producers Shedletskys will be pairing up with Circus Pizza at Panzer’s Deli, for an Ashkenazi-meets-New-York inspired pizza topped with Panzer’s salt beef, bread and butter pickles and slaw, available from 10th - 21st December. Or, on Tuesday 16th December, head over to Tollingtons Fish Bar in Finsbury Park for a feast of Hungarian and Polish dishes, as part of a one-night-only Chanukah party, run by chefs Dovid Brown and Ed Mcllroy.
If feasting at home is your preferred method of celebration, Oren’s Deli is offering customers a ‘Challahdays’ feast, with stalwart Chanukah classics like fried latkes and sufganiot to accompany mains of roast chicken, hake or stuffed cabbage. If you like the pun, it will also be available in the shop as a holiday greeting card.
Gifting
As a child, our family would decipher each night from the next with themes for the gifts we would share, often including ‘sock night’, ‘book night’, and one night where we as a family would offer up our own gift by committing to volunteering, often on Christmas so someone who celebrated the holiday could spend the time with their family. Now as a parent myself I understand this was a structure by which to manage expectations and showcase important values, too.
The now familiar tradition of giving gifts during each of the eight nights of Chanukah may have to do with the holiday’s annual proximity to Christmas, however, the idea of gifting of oneself, whether by service or support (also known as tzedakah) is not new within Jewish culture. In relation to Chanukah, current gift-giving traditions tie the festival to its origins – linking the spirit of gift-giving with the efforts needed to preserve and rededicate the historical temple.
Modern traditions have also been reinforced by the later tradition of giving gelt (money) to children as part of the celebrations in 18th-century Europe. This trifecta of reasonings culminates in the nightly ritual of every child’s favourite – pressies!
Rather than just money, gelt often takes the form of chocolate-filled gold coins, whether they are shared liberally or played for in a game of chance called ‘dreidel’ that centres on a four-sided spinning top with symbolic letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Those four letters remain the only Hebrew letters my children can read.
Whilst Londoners are spoilt for choice when it comes to gift selections, for those looking for a gift in line with the prevalence of pickles and preserving, a puckering theme throughout much of Jewish diasporic cooking, Leyton-based pickle company Shedletsky’s is launching a ‘Brine Flight’ in celebration of their first cookbook, Tickle Your Pickle. The Brine flight consists of a DIY quarterly pickle subscription that delivers packages of brines, spices, and recipes for any avid pickle lover. The first box is due to ship on 8th December, just in time for Chanukah.
Lighting Candles, singing and playing
Lighting Chanukah candles, singing, playing dreidel and friendly gambling of ‘gelt’, whether using chocolate coins or actual money, are a light-hearted and meaningful part of many households’ Chanukah traditions. For locals on Hampstead Heath, Karma Bakery offers a community gathering each evening at 4pm, lighting their now-famous menorah made of freshly baked challah, with songs led by co-owners and sisters Sacha and Tami’s father, Issac Peace. Or families with young children might fancy a trip to the Museum of the Home for a special Jewish Museum London exhibition as part of the Winter Festival, which includes a hands-on insight into how a Jewish family in 1913 might have celebrated the holiday.
However you choose to celebrate, may your oil be hot and your candles burn bright. Chag Sameach!