princess genevieve

mardi, décembre 06, 2005

It's winter!



and it snowed last night. I'm at work today, though, so no snow day. Boo.

Also in winter comes Chanukah. I was volunteering at the Washington Jewish Film Festival last night, and the guy who was selling t-shirts had a dreidel on the table. I started spinning it, only to discover I was spinning it wrong and I needed dreidel lessons! He asked me if I knew how to play, and I said no, so he taught me what each of the letters means. Then he gave me the dreidel. So yay, I am now the very proud owner of a dreidel that I did not make out of clay!

The weird thing was, after the dreidel lessons, he tried to get me to sign up for some classes he teaches at a synagogue about Jewish law and various ethical issues, like fortune tellers and yoga and karate. I think I would pretty much assume if a 30-year-old didn't know how to play dreidel, she probably isn't Jewish. But the classes did sound fairly interesting... I think Alison may go to the one on animal rights and Jewish law.

I had taken some lovely camera-photos for you guys, of the snow and the dreidel, but for some reason, the camera phone isn't emailing them to me, despite me trying twice. If I get them later today, I'll post them.

Edit: pictures appeared. I can't re-arrange them on the post for some reason, though, so they're at the top. I'm sure you can figure out which is which!

6 Comments:

At 12/06/2005 12:24 PM, Blogger Molly said...

Ooh the snow is so beautiful! I miss snowy winters.

That's totally cool that you learned to play the dreidel, is it any fun? I have always wondered that.

 
At 12/06/2005 12:27 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

I think dreidel could be totally fun if you had a lot of people. And alcohol. Basically, each of the 4 sides represents an instruction. There's a pot in the middle, of pennies or m & ms or peanuts or something. the four instructions are: you lose all your pile; add it to the pot. take half the pot. take all the pot. put one thing in the pot. I guess whoever gets all the m & ms or whatever wins.

apparently, grown-ups play for the big bucks.

 
At 12/06/2005 1:22 PM, Blogger Amie said...

At first glance I thought that was a stamp.

The dreidel was something the Jewish people would use as cover while they read scriptures (something they were forbidden to do during the time of the Macabees). When appoached by soldiers (or any non Jewish person I suppose) they would hide the scriptures and pretend they were playing dreidel.

I just thought I would share that so anybody who doesn't already know, now understands the story behind it. :D

 
At 12/06/2005 1:25 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

Cool, Amie! I didn't know.

 
At 12/06/2005 6:12 PM, Blogger Paisley said...

Pretty snow! It only snows here once every ten years or so and never lasts more than a few hours.
I've never heard of a dreidel before - I take it that it's like a spinning top?
BTW - my verification word is bicurp - the first pronouncible one I've had for a while :-)

 
At 12/07/2005 9:55 AM, Blogger Genevieve said...

yep, a dreidel is a spinning top. It's played at Chanukah. And there's a song... I had a little dreidel, I made it out of clay, and when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play. OH dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay, and when you're dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play.

thanks to Oakland Terrace Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, for teaching me that song.

 

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