Wishing everyone happiness, good health, fruitful projects, exciting adventures… and most of all, sweetness in every way !

I hope it was a festive, delicious and joyous Christmas…

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The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, and so, holidays fall on different dates each year in the Julian (solar) calendar.  Chanukah, the “Festival of Lights,” tends to coincide with Christmas, but this year, it is even closer to Thanksgiving.  So it was in early November that we dusted off the menorah and took out our wooden dreidels and decorative lights.  I ran over to Books & Bagels in Zürich, my source for all things Jewish during the holidays, especially cards and candles.  Chanukah plates, decorations, stickers, games – you name it, they have it (but I don’t actually recommend the bagels, sorry.).  Gold sachets of chocolate coins (gelt) and presents arrived in a care package from New York.  All was ready for the first night (of eight) at sundown on December 1st.

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Candles were lit on the menorah and prayers were sung. Potato latkes were dipped in apple sauce and then devoured. Dreidels were spun and M&M’s won. Gold foil wrappers were peeled off  thin milk chocolate gelt (coins), the chocolate inevitably getting stuck under fingernails. Wrapping paper was torn, presents revealed. Friday night December 11th was the first night of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and we did each one of those things.  Best of all is that we get to do it 8 nights in a row!  You can get a fun, brief overview of  the holiday and those traditions here, where I realized that Chanukah is in fact very Swiss-friendly – Latke, meet Rösti! And hello milk chocolate, there’s plenty of that here too! Read the rest of this story >>

Tonight (Sunday, December 21st) is the first night of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.  As is often the case in Jewish history, a miracle happened (the underdog Jewish forces defeated a mighty army), and so today we remember the event and celebrate – with symbolic foods of course.  Chanukah (also “correctly” spelled Hannukah and Hanukkah due to linguistic differences between English and Hebrew) reminds us of the oil that burned for eight days instead of one, and kept the Holy Temple in Israel lit after the Jews defeated the Syrian Greeks.  We therefore light candles on a menorah for eight nights, starting with one candle on the first night, and adding one more each night. On the eighth and final night of Chanukah, all candles are lit.

Chanukah customs involve eating foods fried in oil, especially sufganiot, deep-fried, jelly filled doughnuts.  And no holiday table would be complete without latkes (potato pancakes).  Here in Zürich, it seems like it’s Chanukah on the table every day, lunch and dinner, in every Swiss restaurant you go.  After all, many consider the national dish to be Rösti, which is a side dish of fried grated potatoes.  So does potato latke = Rösti ?

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