This is Hotzi2u signing in with another fact and story. Now this is based on my
opinion, I would love to hear yours though!
As we all should know, for many of us, our favorite time of year is coming:
Christmas. But not everyone celebrates Christmas!
I have noticed to my dismay that everywhere I go it's Christmas decorations,
Christmas this, Christmas that. For instance, at the beach in Whyville, if you haven't noticed yet, the tree on the
far right side is indeed decorated for Christmas.
What about the people in Whyville that don't celebrate Christmas? I do, but I'm
just saying this for the people who don't. What about the Jewish people that celebrate Hanukkah?
Why not have a menorah (a Jewish candle holder that is very important for their
holiday) instead of those Christmas lights? Is it because the majority of
Whyville is Christian?
Is it really fair that Whyville is decorated for
Christmas and not Hanukkah? I think that we should either have no decorations
for these holidays or we have both. It is not fair to those people who don't
celebrate Christmas to have to walk through their virtual town seeing
decorations for it all over, and yet none for their own holiday! It is just not
fair! I mean, I see it in real life too. The malls, the stores... it is not right.
I say that at least Whyville should step up and do something about it, even if
it's not done right in the real world. It is important that Whyville doesn't celebrate one
holiday and not the other.
For those people who haven't heard of Hanukkah before, or have but just don't
know that much about it, here is some information on this unique and special
holiday. Hanukkah is a Jewish term meaning "The festival of lights." It's one of
the most important celebrations of the Jewish religion.
Hanukkah last's eight
days -- well, I mentioned the menorah earlier. That's a candle holder that holds 9 candles for
the holiday. Lighting the menorah is one of the most important traditions for Hanukkah. They
place nine candles in the candle holder and on the first night they light two
candles (the one in the middle and the one on the far right). On the second,
third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and last day they light one each, in order
on each day from the far right to the left.
Some other important
decorations/traditions for Hanukkah are the dreidel and gelt. Dreidel is a
game played by both adults and kids on Hanukkah. (Editor's Note: And
you'll be able to play it, too, in Whyville!) The dreidel is like a spinning
top with four sides. Each side has one letter on it. The letters are SHIN, HEY,
GIMEL and NUN. Each letter represents what you get if you land on that
particular side: For instance, if you land on the side with the letter NUN, you
neither lose or win, you are simply out. If you land on the side with GIMEL on
it, then you get all the tokens in the pot. If you land on the side with
the letter HEY on it, then you get half the pot. Finally, if you get the side
with the letter SHIN on it, then you must put one token in the pot.
Gelt are
chocolate coins that are given with or take the place of coins. This is often a
present for Hanukkah. Also, each day of Hanukkah, you trade with a person or give
a person a present.
I hope that you learned something, and that the city workers consider changing
the way Whyville looks so that it will suit everyone.
My references for this article were:
www.hanukkah-traditions.com
www.kumc.edu/divercity/ethnic_relig/hanukkah.html
www.akhlah.com/holidays/hanukkah/hanukkah.asp
This is Hotzi2u signing off. *Click*
