Thanks for fighting my ignorance. Does that sound like Seamus?
And please fight my ignorance again. Hanukah starts tomorrow (Saturday). Do I light the first candles tomorrow at sundown, or tonight at sundown?
((8*9)/2)+8=44 candles.
(2+9)*8/2 = 44
2 = number used the first night
9 = number used the final night
8 = number of nights
Similarly, number of gifts for the 12 days of Christmas:
(1+12)*12/2 = 78
Sum of all numbers from 1 to 100
(1 + 100)*100/2 = 5050
A minimum wage clerk is one thing, but what constantly amazes me is that the supermarkets around here have a ridiculous habit of taking all the “Jewish” stuff and putting it on an end cap around Jewish holidays, regardless of whether it has anything to do with that holiday, or is even allowed on that holiday. Like Manischewitz borsch on Hanukah. Or (my favorite) challah on Passover.
Yes, you start lighting tomorrow at sundown.
If it’s not Shabbat, you can relight them if you want, but you don’t have to. You wouldn’t say the blessing before relighting them. If it is Shabbat, you’re not supposed to light a fire (you light the Hanukkah candles before Shabbat begins or after it ends), so you would just leave them.
No. The first syllable is “sha” like in “sha na na”, the second is like the word “mash” but with a short a instead of a long a.
Tomorrow at sundown. Actually, after sundown, so you don’t light it on Shabbat.
Good to know, thanks. I’ll light them just as I’m getting ready to go out carolling.
(shakes fist) “If you pronounce that C one more time, you’ll be SEEING stars!”
Thanks Himera.
I can only conclude that this clerk would have trouble ordering things from B&H Photo.
Selecting the colors for each night is an important part of the holiday!
That everyone has spoken of candles makes me think and hope that the travesty of an electric Menorah is dead. Please tell me this is true.
Where are you, anyway? I have no trouble getting candles in the Bay Area - even Safeway has them. And they advertised Manishevitz in their weekly ad. :eek:
Boston, which has a fair Jewish population. The neighborhood where I was shopping is heavily Hispanic. But almost this same event took place years earlier in a neighborhood that’s heavily Jewish.
It’s pronounced <throat clear> ah - nuh - kuh
^^Exactly! 
I am new to practicing the Jewish holidays, but my kids are being raised Jewish, so of course any excuse for candles, big platefuls of yummy food, and presents!! is thoroughly endorsed by the Bellum brood. It’s pretty fun! The candles make it festive.
45 candles seem to be in a typical Hanukkah candle box. Three rows of 15. That leaves one extra one, just in case. The candles are thicker than say, birthday candles, but much skinnier than normal candles. The wicks are longer than you might expect, and not waxed (at least the ones I’ve seen over the past few years seem to have bare string wicks) and are easy to light.
They drip wax everywhere. Our menorah looks very medieval by the time Hanukkah is over, due to the piled up wax drippings everywhere, in different colors.
After Hanukkah’s over, I put it in the refrigerator to chill, so the wax can harden up and come off easier, then I chip all the wax bits off and polish it up til it’s nice and shiny again.
Every year, my Jewish in-laws tend to imagine that poor old Gentile Sarabellum probably doesn’t have a menorah of her very own, the poor dear, so someone gives me another one. I think I’ve got five now. Some are very simple and some are almost too pretty to actually use (lead crystal!) and one of them is a handmade sculpture of Noah’s Ark with the different animal pairs holding the candles.
We have friends whose daughter got a job over Hannukah – she’s a Santa’s elf at one of the malls, where they take the kid’s pictures. Santa has Jewish elves!
it’s like when my mother gave us Christmas presents wrapped in Hannukah paper.
One of my presents was a dreidel.
That reminds me of when we were still speaking to my inlaws. They brought over three menorahs over three years. Um thanks but I already have one. It’s Grandma Shirley’s silver menorah and we use it each year. I don’t collect them.
Around here they have a special display for the candles and other items at the local Shop Rite. It’s wedged between the Entenmenn’s cakes and all the Christmas candy. We get new multicolored candles each year. The ones we get always have distinct serrated edges for some reason.
I have Hindu friends who told me that “Diwali” is not pronounced how you’d think it’d be pronounced…I hold to the idea that it isn’t me whose sayin’ it wrong, it’s the world that’s spelling it wrong.
The Noah’s Ark menorah sounds so cool! Any chance we might see a picture of it? Pretty please with a latke on top?
I work at a retail store. We carry tens of thousands of items, much of it constantly changing. As part of management, I know early about new stuff that some of the ditzes I work with don’t have a clue about. I still find out about certain items a half hour after that one lady asked for them. I’m very smart with a darn good memory, and it’s a lot to keep track of.
Still, the part about showing you other candles without asking if Hanukah candles were a thing, that’s bad. All I know about Hanukah is from high school choir, which is not much. A few follow-up questions would be good there.
It looks almost (but not exactly) like this one:
http://dinosaurmusings.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/2011-1-ark.jpg
