Saturday, December 21, 2013

Christmas and New Years Greetings


I enjoy pictures and drawings of Christmas as it is celebrated in far lands.  This lovely Christmas postcard depicting a family celebration of Christmas from across the ocean, just blesses my heart.

I was wondering, what game are these two playing?  I am so very curious.  If you know, I 'd love to hear from you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

UPDATE:  Thank you Irene!  This appears to be an Asian version of the game of dreidel.  It is a game played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top.  Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which together form the acronym for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, meaning "a great miracle happened there."

According to ancient Jewish tradition, there was a time when the people hid in caves to teach the Torah.  Legend has it when the teacher would hear soldiers approaching, he would instruct the children to hide their Torah scrolls and take out their dreidels instead. 

So--now you know!  

1 comment:

Irene said...

an Asian version of dreidel? Great card, what a treasure.