1000 Years of Hanukkah in Jewish historical costume!
1000 Years of Hanukkah in Jewish historical costume!
Celebrating the history of Hanukkah traditions
Let's celebrate 1000 years of the history of Hanukkah in historical costumes! Some Hanukkah traditions are over two thousand years old, and throughout Jewish history new Hanukkah celebrations have been invented. I dressed up in historical outfits from the last 1000 years to try out different Hanukkah celebration activities for each night.
Hanukkah traditions and customs vary worldwide, so this video is just a small slice of Jewish holiday traditions. Hanukkah is technically a "minor" Jewish holiday, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating our resilience and survival. Beginning with the menorah and Hanukkah blessings, to Medieval Jews singing Hanukkah songs and cooking fried donuts, the development of latkes in the Renaissance, giving gelt and playing dreidel, and finally the Hanukkah music and gift-giving we think of today.
Jewish holidays are sadly unfamiliar to many people, and I wanted to make a fun little Hanukkah celebration video where I could dress up in 8 different costumes and share a millennia of Jewish tradition with you.
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Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu, l’hadlik ner, l’hadlik ner, shel Hanukkah
Hello. I'm V, historical costumer, and unapologetic loud Jew here to take you through a thousand years of Hanukkah traditions. For anyone new here, here is the obligatory disclaimer: Jews are too diverse of a people for me to represent every single Hanukkah tradition there is in one video and, also, I happen to fit entirely too neatly into the American stereotypical image of what a Jew is, so please do not take this video, or my practice as a representation of the entirety of Jewish existence or practice. That's simply not possible for one person to do.
I am wearing the clothes of an early medieval Ashkenazi Jew : Linen underdress, a red wool kirtle, or dress, and a rectangular linen veil wrapped around my shoulders and head. And, also, modern glasses ‘cause I'm about to light stuff on fire and I should be able to see what I'm doing if I do that. We are going to talk about the original Hanukkah tradition : the menorah.
This tradition comes from the happy, miraculous ending part of the Hanukkah story. After the Hasmonean revolt, which was the successful revolt by the Jews against a conquering army that wanted to assimilate them and then force them to stop practicing Judaism the temple had been sacked and there was only enough oil left to keep the ritual lamp lit for twenty-four hours. The miracle is that the twenty-four hour supply of oil they had burned for all eight days, hence the eight days of Hanukkah.
There are some differences between this menorah and that historical lamp. For instance, this has nine branches whereas its believed the historical menorah in the temple had seven. Secondly, this menorah burns candles, rather than oil. There are actually some menorahs that have like little tiny oil lamps in them, but I'm basic and I like things easy, so candles it is. There is one candle lit for each night. We're gonna say its the first night, and then there's always one extra to light the others with. This is called the “shamash” or “helper”. This goes often in the center, and sometimes to the side, and its always placed usually higher or lower than the rest of them to differentiate it somehow. Thee other ones always have to be even. So you would light, first the shamash, then you would use it to light the other candles . . . (come on, stay lit)
. . . And theres the blessing you heard me sing at the beginning of the video, which means : “Blessed are you our God, ruler of the universe, who hallows us with commandments, and commands us to light the Hanukkah lights”. Happy Hanukkah !
It is now the high medieval ages. Specifically, it is the thirteenth century when the Jewish liturgical poem Ma'oz Tzur was written. I am dressed as a high medieval English Jew. I’m wearing a red wool kirtle, I have my bliaut which has the big sleeves and the laced sidesand I'm wearing a circular veil pinned onto my head with a headband that matches the trim.My hair is in two braids, which are out and visible because I'm not married. Observant Jewish women did and many still do cover all of their hair if they are married. So if I was married my hair would probably be taped to my head and wrapped in a kerchief.
And also . . . We have my dear friend, and partner in Jewish historical nerdery, Anna, who is dressed in the clothed of a high medieval Sephardic Jew.
So we are going to sing, not all of Ma'oz Tzur, but like a verse or two. I'm going to very shamefully read lyrics off of my phone.
Anna: It is actually not previously a Christmas carol. It’s got a lot of the common tune of it is considered that, but it’s not, it’s old.
V: Anna is actually a much more academically qualified historian than me.
Anna: I'm going to go into Folklore and History for masters.
V: So there's a bunch of different tunes...
V: and you know the more familiar one,
Anna: I know the Germanic one, yes.
V: Yeah. The tune is fifteenth century or earlier because folk traditions are wonderful and we never have firm dates for anything.
Anna: That's fair.
V: Like we know this is when somebody first wrote this down, but we don't know how long something existed before anyone bothered to write it down.
Anna: Yeah. This song was written during the crusades aka the thirteenth century which, while not specifically a Jewish tragedy, involved a lot of tragic Jewish parts.
V: the thirteenth century is when things basically went to absolute shit for Jews in the part of the world I am dressed for, culminating with all of us being kicked out of England in 1290 without our property.
Anna: Yeah the crusades brought up a lot of antisemitic things throughout Europe, to be fair.
[both singing in Hebrew] Ma'oz Tzur Yeshu'ati, lekha na'eh leshabe'ah / Tikon beit tefilati, vesham toda nezabe'ah/ Le'et takhin matbe'ah mitzar hamnabe'ah/ Az egmor beshir mizmor hanukat hamizbe'ah / Az egmor beshir mizmor hanukat hamizbe'ah.
Anna: It goes through a lot of these persecutions. Passover is one of them, Haman aka Purim, which is another celebration. All our holidays have three parts:
Both: They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat!
Anna: This is one of them.
V: So its like five different persecutions, and then the fifth verse is Hanukkah. And then the sixth verse, which may or may not have been written after the fact, is “could we please have no more of this persecution nonsense”.
Anna: You can tell people really listened to the lyrics...
V: Behold my kitchen, and also me in fourteenth century clothes, late medieval period. We are going to make sufganiyot which dates from sometimes around this era. Sufganiyot are little jelly donut things, sometimes they are little tiny donut holes. sometimes they are not so little at all.
V: I made dough this morning. It’s yeast raised. We're going to hope I kneaded this enough. As I roll up these sleeves, like, what did you do, how did you not get flour all over your sleeves?
V: Say a prayer hoping your dough rose.
Anna: We've got the best part of this down.
V: The easiest achievement. Aell... I might have spoke too soon.
Anna: Medieval songs about putting buns and ovens.
V: Yes, and they are all incredibly suggestive!
Anna: Exactly!
V: Here it goes.
V: Happy donut noises!
V: I think they are ready to flip. This would be so much easier if I didn't have a thermometer to work around.
Anna: So one of the interesting things about sufganiyot is that they have this very popular similar dish in the Netherlands called oliebollen, and according to one source theres this idea that the oliebollen actually came from Sephardic Jews fleeing during the inquisition. Actually probably one of the reasons its popular is because of the oil, because oil is a big deal around Hanukkah, like this and latkes—
V: —basically any fried food—
Anna: So oliebollen has no filling and thats probably because there's a theory that that's proof it came from Sephardic tradition. Because the jelly filled concept doesn't come until later due to Ashkenazi Jews slash just Germanic influence in general.
V: What did you fry them in if you were in the Netherlands and didn't have olive oil? Which is what I figure is what people in the Mediterranean Jews would be using
Anna: The fat of a goose. A singular goose, but a goose. Probably more than one goose. If you decide to replicate this in the ways of the elders with goose fat, you will be okay.
V: According to kashrut, but they might be gross.
Anna: They might be gross... actually... yeah they're probably gross. but at least then you could claim you were being historically accurate.
Anna: And there we see that actually :
V: Ye olde fourteenth century woman in her natural environment, using microwave radiation
[Laughter at flarping sound of squeeze bottle]
V: Mind your manners! There is one, I managed one... stab... oh, I murdered it a little.
V: Okay, what we *should* do though is we should clean up.
So I am now dressed in something vaguely resembling the sixteenth century and we are going to make latkes which date from this time period. The latkes we know today are shredded potato pancakes fried in oil like all good Hanukkah food is, but, potatoes weren't very in Europe in the sixteenth century. Like, people had just barely figured them out because they come from the Americas. Sixteenth century latkes were actually made from turnips. So I have bought a big honkin' turnip, and we're going to make some potato ones to eat, and we're going to make some turnip ones for... historical experiment? Experimental archeology?
V: The reason why Jews always have very strong opinions about if you do or do not peel your potatoes, or if you do or don't eat the potato peelings, is during the Shoah, the Holocaust, Jewish prisoners were fed of course the worst food.The Germans ate the middle of the potatoes and the Jews ate the potato peelings, which are actually really nutritious.
Anna: Which is why we should've put them in the latke.
V: So there's always this really intense debate. And the two sides of it are : you either eat the potato peels because they kept your ancestors alive, or you don't eat the potato peels because that's what the nazis tried to feed your ancestors, and the nazis can go fuck themselves.
V: We are not grating these by hand, we are using a food processor.
Anna: Just like in the Medieval times!
[Thumping of knife and turnip on cutting board as V struggles to cut it.]
V: That's probably... I shouldn't do that on the internet. Don't be like me.
[food processor noises]
V: So we're going to squeeze as much of the moisture out as possible to get them to fry nicely.
V: I’ve actually never cooked with a turnip before. I don't know what that says about me.
V: Three tablespoons of flour . . . Would they have been able to afford pepper? Maybe they could afford a little pepper, but I'll only use a little bit.
V: Potatoes are turning pinkish, because we didn't put onion in this and onion helps keep it that golden color, but I can't eat onion.
V: Have to be careful of splats.
Anna: They are getting all pretty and golden.
V: For the turnip latkes I'm going to use olive oil, because I assume that would be available to Mediterranean Jews.
V: Here goes a turnip one.
V: It’s, like, it’s not holding together quite as well as I'd expect, but its gotten nice and brown on the bottom.
V: Sometimes accessibility is sitting in a chair in front of the stove to cook.
V: I’m a bad Jew and I forgot to get sour cream and applesauce. So we're just going to have to try these plain.
V: Here's a potato latke, and a turnip latke.
V: It tastes like a latke.
Anna: I think that's the biggest problem about cooking with Jews, is we already know what to expect out of this.
V: Exactly! I don't know what to expect out of the turnip latke though.
V: Yeeeeugh.
Anna: Really? I kind of like it.
V: No. Noooo...
Anna: No?
V: No. No.
[Anna laughs]
V: Just no...
Anna: It has kinda a horseradishy taste.
V: Maybe with enough salt and pepper... but, um, no... yugh...
Anna: Yeah, fun fact, apparently this is supposed to have cheese.
V: Okay so apparently the turnip ones are supposed to have cheese as a binder and thats why they fell apart. Or, there weren't supposed to be turnip ones at all, and there was supposed to be something with ricotta cheese and raisins and rice. Which honestly sounds a lot better so maybe next time I'll try that. Maybe if I try an actual Hanukkah party we'll try that
Anna: Alright.
V: But for now, I'm going to say, [whispers] I'm sticking with potato latkes.
So we're doing that thing again where we completely skip past the seventeenth century and straight into the eighteenth century. For which, I apologize, and promise you some eventual very exciting seventeenth century Jewish clothes. [whispers] They involve pirates.
And now for the fifth night of Hanukkah, we are going to be talking about gelt. Just about all American Jews, I figure, probably lots of Jews other places, and probably non-Jews in lots of places are familiar with these guys, the Hanukkah gelt you see popping up in grocery stores.They're little pieces of chocolate wrapped in foil and stamped to look like coins. Some of my favorites are like coins from all over the world. They are very fun. And this comes from a tradition to give gifts of money particularly to one's teacher around this time of year that appears to have later been associated with Hanukkah. The reason we are doing this on the fifth night is that the fifth night of Hanukkah never falls on Shabbat, and you're not supposed to handle money on Shabbat. So this would be the ideal time to give any gifts of money that you wish to give.
So for the fifth night of Hanukkah I have purchased some fancy pants dark chocolate, fair trade, et cetera et cetera, chocolate gelt which I shall be popping into Ye Olde Very Historically Accurate Bubble Mailer and sending to my 'not quite a rabbi' friend Ari. Who is in rabbinical school and who is the person I always go to when I have questions about the spiritual side of Judaism. Or, you know, any of the stuff that I straight up didn't grow up with and may want to talk to a rabbi about. I have also written them a little card, I even got out the fancy pen to do it. [reading from card] Dear Ari, I know you've been in need of spoons lately,and while I cannot send you those, I hope this chocolate will similarly improve your well-being, or at least your happiness. May your studies continue to be fulfilling, and your questions good, and hurry up and do them so I can join your congregation. Your loving friend and student, V.
And since I've sent Ari all the fancy gelt, I’ll eat the cheap stuff.
So the sixth day of Hanukkah is on Sabbat this year, and while I have never been one to turn off all my devices, or put down all craft projects, I am trying to be better at taking the time to rest and decompress.
Also yesterday evening I was recovering from a medical procedure, so I didn't really have much choice.
June's Journey, which is a bit of a favorite in the costube community, reached out a little while ago and asked if I'd like to try out the game, so yesterday evening I did.
I've never been much of a phone game person since I am a total klutz with tiny screens but you can also play June's Journey from a tablet also.
Its got the same sort of ambiance and immersive setting that I love about watching historical dramas with a really strong emphasis on the plot.
And the gameplay doesn't have any of the things that makes me struggle with games in general.
The controls are simple. You just click on the hidden objects to find clues and advance the story line.
There's no big, flashing timer bar telling you to hurry up or you'll lose the game. I hate those. They always make me panic.
If this also sounds like an excellent option for when you want to turn your brain down, but not off, then you can download June's Journey for free using the link in the description. You can play on android or iOS devices, and if you want a screen even bigger than my tablet, its also on Facebook games so you can play from a computer.
Thanks so much to June's Journey for sponsoring this video.
And now I shall turn off the camera and go back to resting, like a sensible person.
For the sixth day of Hanukkah I am dressed for the regency era. Empire waisted white cotton dress, and hair in a Psyche knot with ribbons. So I figured this would be a good time to do something suitable for any regency era rake: gambling.
Dreidel is a very old game played with a four sided spinning top most often by children. It may have developed as a sneaky way of studying Jewish practice in times and places where that was banned.
Or it may have just been a fun game related to spinning tops in other cultures.
There are four Hebrew letters on the Dreidel: nun, gimel, hay, and shin. Which stand for the Yiddish words nisht or nothing, gants or whole, halb or half, and shteyl arayn, please pardon any mispronouncing for 'put in.'
These are the rules of how you play the game. There is a pile of money, or gelt or candies, or whatever you're playing with. You take turns spinning the top and depending on where it lands you take the whole pile, half the pile, do nothing, or you put one of your pieces into the pile.
Jews also love acronyms and wordplay so the four letters on the dreidel also for an acronym for part of the Hanukkah story meaning 'a great miracle happened there.'
In Israel the lettering is a little different with a po instead of a sham so the acronym changes to: a great miracle happened here.
So its a really good thing I didn't actually eat all of this gelt or I'd have nothing to play with.
In the mid-nineteenth century we start to see the roots of our more modern attitude towards Hanukkah as a bigger winter gift-giving holiday.
It coincides a lot with Jewish integration and assimilation into western society and also with the revival of Christmas celebrations and how that holiday became commercialized.
I am dressed for the seventh day in my grey cotton 1850's gown over a white blouse to fill in the open neckline and sleeves and my hair is following the fashion of the 1850's, where width and curls around the face were popular.
A tradition I hadn't known about before researching for this video is that among the Rebbes of the Nadvorna a Hasidic clan or dynasty originating in present day Ukraine its traditional for the Rebbes to play the violin after the menorah is lit.
I am not a Rebbes, or part of an Nadvorna, but I did, at one point, know how to play the violin.
So let's see how much I remember.
I wanted to play a Jewish song but it had to be something simple because I hadn't practiced regularly in ages.
The lullaby 'Raisins and Almonds' is an old traditional but it became especially popular when Avram Goldfaden arranged it for his musical Shulamis in 1880
I would like to pre-emptively apologize to all klezmer musicians, Irish musicians, and particularly to my friend Will for the fact that this song is going to come out covered in Celtic ornamentation.
Apparently that's what happens when you know mostly Irish and Scottish music.
*lovely violin playing*
So towards the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth you start to see this really increased commercialization of Hanukkah. A lot of this may have been driven by Jewish children who were spending more time with Christian children their age and seeing them have these big celebrations for Christmas and then going home and asking their parents 'Why don't we get to do something like that?'
So its also around this time that you start to see the tradition of giving gifts other than gelt for Hanukkah become much more wide spread especially for children. In a lot of places its traditional to do like one small gift per night and particularly among with people of my heritage, that being mostly Ashkenazi Jews from the north-east US, people will get very skeptical and sarcastic about the notion of gift giving for Hanukah.
You would get these very small gifts or you would get these very utilitarian gifts and one thing, that has almost become a running joke, is 'Well what have you got for Hanukkah?' 'Socks.'
Boring, functional, socks.
So I thought 'Why don't I send some socks for Hanukkah to two of my favorite Jewish CosTubers, Muse and Dionysus, whose channel I will link up here. And in order to do that, why don't I get some help from my favorite historical accessories shop: Penny River Costumes which is run by Jess
V: Hi Jess
Jess: Hi, how are you?
V: I'm doing good.
Jess: What are you in the market for?
V: Okay so you know Muse and Dionysus right?
Jess: Yes.
V: I want to get them some socks for Hanukkah.
Jess: That's awesome, that's a great gift.
V: Thank you, but I may need some help choosing.
Jess: I have so many, give me just a second, I have like a whole box. Okay. I have some hand dyed silk ones that would be perfect for Tudor and also I've used them for Regency and there's a cool thing about these because they're rainbows. They come with a donation to the Trevor Project
V: Oh that's amazing! Muse and Dionysus will love that.
Jess: These are like my feel good stockings: golden, kind of an eggplanty, a teal, a red, a green, and this pretty like violet blue color
V: Maybe the sort of magenta eggplant color and the yellow.
Jess: Yes, these are, oh gosh, these are beautiful. Alright, I'll put those to the side for you for practical stuff, if you want to do I have some wool, I've got actually two different types of wool.
I've got like really thick, like happy warm feet and then I've got these fine wool ones that are, they're really, I wouldn't know they were wool except the tag says they are wool. And they're very soft, and they're nice and lightweight. So I have these and then I have like fourteen different colors of cotton. These are constantly probably my highest rated product that I sell.
V: I think everyone knows I'm an absolute sucker for wool.
Jess: oooh okay
V: So I'm thinking I might actually want to send them each a pair of the really nice wool ones
Jess: Okay. Like these? The fine ones?
Vee: mhm
Jess: These are lovely
Jess: Did you want to get any garters?
V: Yeah
Jess: Okay. The ribbon garters can do a one time wrapping but I've got a bunch of colors and they're all in stock right now. So if you just name a color I can match or whatever.
V: Oh, awesome. What color do you think would go with everything?
Jess: with everything, um probably like a middle blue, or I have silver
V: silver sounds great
Jess: Okay, I'll do a silver, like a really pretty silver silk ribbon and I also have, just gearing up for the holidays, I've got like six colors of like the stripe in the tape. So I have like red, and light blue, and yellow, and I think this is like a forest green, green also, green is natures neutral and I know you love green, I love green too.
V: Don't I know it, I say, wearing all green wool.
Jess: Yes.
Jess: Okay so maybe I'll do like a green cotton - are we set? Are we good?
V: Yeah, I think we're about set. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to send these to them.
Jess: Yeah, I hope they love them.
And by the way, everybody, I just need to inform you that the pair of socks that I have from Jess is literally the nicest pair of stockings I have, and my legs are impossible to find stockings for.
So I will link her in the description.
Jess: That makes me really happy. I'm so glad that your legs like the stockings! cuz, like, these, like, I love these as well.
V: They're great! Okay, Thank you so much.
Jess: Absolutely. Happy Hanukkah.
V: Happy Hanukkah, Bye.
Jess: Bye.
V: The Menorah has been lit, latkes and sufganiyah have been cooked, gelt has been given, the fiddle has been played, gifts have been sent out, and we have done so many traditions.
Thank you all for joining me for this little Hanukkah celebration.
Don't forget to pop down in the comments and tell me about your favorite Hanukkah tradition that you celebrate, or is celebrated by someone you know. and while you're at it, leave a like and subscribe for more Jewish history, historical fashion adventures.
I will see you in my next video in which we will actually get to work on my Mirah Lapidoth evening gown.
Bye.
We'll say its the first night... oops.
V: Do you want to say anything about the history of Ma'oz Tzur before we sing?
Anna: Do I know the history of Ma'oz Tzur?
V: I don't know, do you?
*violin go scronch*
Anna: Yeah choices, choice... no one expects the Spanish inquisition, as they say.
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