Dreidels "por encargo"

Oh dreidels, dreidels, dreidels, you are quite tough to find...

Some thoughts on shopping trips, and a new neighborhood.

I

My menorah and candles

My quest to find a menorah in Madrid ended up being only a ten minute walk from my apartment, and as you can see above, the Aladdin's lamp is working nicely.  (It's on tin foil to prevent hot wax drips and sparks on the nice wooden furniture.)  As I now have the menorah in place, and one of the friendly medievalists I have met here has invited me for "nochevieja" I of course reciprocated by inviting her and her family for this weekend so they get to have a "traditional" (within the very loose sense of the word) Hanukkah.  As she has volunteered to bring her children so they can light candles, and as when it comes to tradition I draw the line at looking up prayers in Hebrew that I don't know and don't normally recite, I thought I should have dreidels for the kids to play with.  (If I have any European readers who don't know what I'm talking about, this is a dreidel.)  This turned out to be difficult, and may yet be impossible.

Where to buy a menorah in Madrid (Part II)

Mission accomplished!  Menorah in situ and ready to go!

I realized I promised to let people know about my trip to Los Olivos Librería y Distribuidora Solidaria, so while this is a few days old, I should let people know that I have successfully purchased a (somewhat whimsical) menorah (see above) which I feel is a nice nod to the oil in the story without the full of dealing with oil and wicks and so on.  (It also believe it or not was one of the less expensive ones in the store.)  Here it is, with candles, all ready to go, except for the tiny problem (which occurred to me forcibly when doing yoga last week, probably because there are lit candles in the studio) that I don't have any matches.  At home I rely on the gas flame of my stove to light candles in an emergency, but as I have an electric stovetop here that's not an option.  So I have to remember to buy matches sometime over the next couple of weeks.  (I was thinking about this while doing yoga and was upside down in a shoulder stand thinking "tengo que comprar...mechas?  No, una mecha is a wick...cerillas!  Tengo que comprar cerillas."  It's amazing what comes up when your mind is relaxed at yoga.)

Where to buy a menorah in Madrid (Part I)

 

A tale of syncretism, cultural generosity, and general weirdness

As I may have mentioned, friends of mine here in Madrid have invited me for 24 December ("nochebuena" in local parlance) so that I'm not lonely over the holiday.  I said that of course I would be glad to come if I was around, and mentioned that I normally spend the Christmas break in Puerto Rico with my parents, and the tradition of the midnight swim on December 31.  (I don't know if now with no beach the midnight swim will happen again, but let's hope that it does soon, and that the water isn't too polluted for the "underwater fireworks" of phosphorescence.)  "So do you not celebrate Christmas because you're Jewish?" asked the kind friend who had just extended the invitation.  When I confirmed that this was the case she said, "Oh, that's why you talked about New Year's instead."

To be clear, my friend knows that I am Jewish, she just wasn't sure if that was why I didn't celebrate Christmas.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that if I was a practicing Jew the "New Year" would be in September.  Spaniards really mean it when they naively claim that lots of Christian celebrations are cultural and not religious, mostly because they can't quite imagine life without them.  (Nor did I explain that most Americans over the age of ten wouldn't be particularly bothered about Christmas Eve since the celebration even for American Christians is on Christmas Day.  No point in making things too complicated.)  Since I felt I ought to reciprocate for the kind Christmas invite, I said that my friends should come and bring their kids for one night of Hanukkah, which is a nice kid-friendly celebration, and which they would enjoy as exposure to a new culture.  They were quite pleased with the idea and agreed to come if possible ("porque las tradiciones así son bonitas" as my friend explained, when adding that although they were not religious they put a "Belén" or creche scene for their kids at Christmas).  I am most happy to invite them, and will even try for traditional food, although latkes without a food processor may be a challenge.  (Perhaps I can borrow a food processor from someone?  Or buy pre-shredded potatoes?)  I have also decided (in the interests of cultural ambassadorship, and being a good host to people who have been super-nice to me) that I will try to get ahold of a dreidel and look up the half-remembered rules to the game so they can enjoy playing it.  (Chocolate coins for gambling are at least no problem.  Along with its acres of Christmas turrones in all possible flavors and several that are probably impossible my local Mercadona has started selling little baggies of chocolate euros in appropriate gold and silver foil.  As with "El Halloween," candy makers don't miss a trick, or a holiday.)  But this leaves the important problem of buying a menorah.