December 7 -- Hanukkah Day Two: Dreidel

Most people have heard of the popular Dreidel game played during Hanukkah, but if you were wondering about how to play or the history behind it, keep reading.

It's hard to spin on carpet.

The Dreidel is a spinning top made of clay or wood. Some children make their own Dreidel during the holiday. From the Yiddish word drey which means "to spin", the Dreidel is four sided with a Hebrew letter on each side. The letters stand for words which make the phrase Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which means "A great miracle happened there." 

It's worth noting that in Israel, the fourth letter on the Dreidel is Pei which stands for the word Poh meaning "here" -- "A great miracle happened here."

Players begin the game with an equal number of coins, raisins, nuts, candies, or gelt (chocolate coins given to reward children during Hanukkah). At the beginning of each round, everyone puts a coin in the center "pot" -- an ante. Then everyone takes turns spinning the Dreidel once. 

Gimel = "Gimme!!"

נ Nun = player does nothing

ג Gimel = player gets everything in the pot

ה  Hay = player wins half the pot

ש Shin or פ Pei = player puts one in the pot

Often children will shout, "Shin, shin, put one in!"

Stop what you're doing right now and open Google. Type "Dreidel game" in the search bar and play a quick game with Google.

 The Dreidel is a variant on a popular European gambling toy called teetotum. On the teetotum piece the letters are A, D, N, T which stand for the Latin instructions. 

We bought our Dreidel at Party City. It has been fun playing by the light of the menorah, even if we didn't quite have the rules memorized and sort of made up our own at first. This game is one where the more the merrier; two people isn't nearly as fun. But the cat likes to play too and he will spin the top with his paw or stop it when we've spun it for him. 

Sore loser: When he doesn't win, Osiris carries the Dreidel off and hides it under a rug.