Hanukkah at the Elkhorn Inn!

My favorite expression for how we celebrate Hanukkah at the Elkhorn Inn is: “Go Big or Go Home”!

This year, I’m happy to say, we outdid ourselves. LOL Known, by my own self-proclamation, as the “Martha Stewart of Inflatable Decor”, over the years, and thanks in great measure to eBay, we have accumulated a rather large collection of humongous inflatable holiday decorations, including Giant New Year’s Baby, Valentine “I Love You” Bear, St. Patrick’s Day Leprechaun, Easter Bunny on Motorcycle, The Great Big Birthday Cake, Uncle Sam, Scarecrow On Tractor, Hunting Snowman, Thanksgiving Turkey, a whole bunch of Halloween inflatables, a giant 10′ snowman, and more Christmas ones than I can count! But, as I have come, sadly, to learn, there are few inflatables available for the Jewish Holidays, and, frankly, Hanukkah Menorahs are basically “it”. (I have looked in vain for a giant, inflatable Lulav-Etrog Set for Succot, and a Great Big Seder Plate for Passover, as well as an 8′ Kiddush Cup and Candlesticks, but apparently Gemmy- the Inflatable Company of Record- doesn’t feel the need to create them…) We’ve had a series of 6′ high blue inflatable Hanukkah Menorahs festooning the Inn for many years, and our Holiday Traditions are Dan’s Annual Inflating of the Decorations, and my posting a photo of “Me and the Menorah” in front of the Inn on Facebook! As I’m evidently the only Jew in McDowell County, West Virginia at this time, if we don’t celebrate the Jewish Holidays they don’t get celebrated, and so we make the effort to celebrate them in style!

When our latest Big Blue Menorah finally needed to be replaced (DIY Dan is great at fixing them, but there comes a point where even he can’t repair them! When we finally toss something, trust me: it is absolutely and totally un-fixable!), I broke down and eBayed the ne plus ultra of inflatable Menorahs- the 8′ high one! And then, because too much is never enough, I got the dreidle-spinning, yarmulke-wearing Hanukkah Bear, too!

Hanukkah is the Jewish “Festival of Lights” commemorating the miracle of a single day’s worth of oil burning for eight days. The history of the holiday, from chabad.org: In the second century BCE, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of mitzvah observance and belief in G‑d. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G‑d. When they sought to light the Temple’s Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Hanukkah. For EVERYTHING you have ever wanted to know about Hanukkah, including the history, traditions, prayers, and traditional foods (fried in oil, of course!), go to: http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm

Dan and I have a collection of Menorahs (or “Hanukiot” as they should be called, as Menorah means “light” in Hebrew, and Hanukkiah is one specifically for Hanukkah), including many from Israel, as well as ones that were given to us as gifts. A Hanukkiah has 9 lights- one for each of the eight days of Hanukkah, plus a “Shammas”- the higher one that is used to light the others. Each night you light the Shammos and say the prayer, and then light the other candles, adding one each night, going from right to left. The Deer Hanukkiah was a candelabra I bought many years ago in NYC- it had 10 tea-light antlers, so I lopped off one and turned it into a Hanukkiah! This year I found a Very clever “Travel Hanukkiah” on Modern Tribe that has a cork bottom that fits into a wine bottle, and I added that to our collection, and then Dan surprised me with a new one he had ordered, along with fancy blue and white and silver candles! I set up my “annual Hanukkah display” of our Hanukkiot, dreidles, and silver and blue stars on one of the Inn’s dining room tables, and lit the lights each night. The last night (tonight) I even managed to take a “selfie”! And Chef Dan, the “Latke King of Landgraff” made his AbFab sweet-and-purple-potato latkes!
We hope you are having a joyous holiday season, too! Please comment and tell me what special things you do to celebrate!