As promised I sent the questions to our lovely quest host LYDIA HICKORIES and this is the answers she gave to each question! <3 Thank you for joining the Modern Muse team for the time being and helping out with this event!

Questions

1) Lily Khloe - In the last article it was mentioned that playing dreidel games is an activity that families do together on Hanukkah. So, How do you play dreidel?

2) Jade Bluestone - Where did the tradition of Hanukkah come from?

3) Anonymous - I was told something about a Hanukkah harry, where did that come from?

4) Anonymous - When it is Hanukkah, do you say happy Hanukkah every day to someone celebrating it or is one time enough?

5) Anonymous - What does the symbols mean on the dreidel?

6) Anonymous - Does each of the candles have names?

Answers 1 & 5: A dreidel, also called a sevivon which is Yiddish for "Turn around", has four Hebrew letters on it shin, hei, gimel, and nun. Those four letters make the phrase Nes gadal haya sham which means "A great miracle occurred there". When read on their own nun means none or nothing, gimel means all, hei means half, and shin means share. To play with a dreidel one must get a group together. This can be any number of people, but I prefer to play with an even number. Next everyone gets 10 game pieces, and these can be anything from candy to coins, to nuts, or matchsticks even. At the beginning of every round, each player puts one game piece into the center "pot", and then takes turns spinning the dreidel starting from the youngest player in the group. When you spin the dreidel if it lands on nun you don't get anything from the pot, if it lands on gimel you get the entire pot, if it lands on hei you take half the pot (if there's an uneven number in the pot you take half plus one), and if the dreidel lands on shin you put another piece into the pot. This continues until only one person has enough to keep putting into the pot and everyone else is out of pieces. Whoever is still left at the end wins!

2: Hanukkah is the celebration and remembrance of the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after the Maccabeus won it back from the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. When Judas Maccabeus entered the temple after driving out the invading king's forces he found only a small jar of oil that should have only lasted a day but miraculously lasted a whole eight. That is why we light the menorah for eight days

3: Hanukkah Harry is from a Saturday Night Live skit called "The Night Hanukkah Harry Saved Christmas". Santa Claus has fallen ill so he calls in his friend Hanukkah Harry to help him deliver presents to all the good "gentile" girls and boys.

4: There are actually a few different ways to say "Happy Hanukkah" to someone. The most common is Chag Sameach which just means happy holiday and can be used for a variety of celebrations. One can say Chag urim sameach which means Happy Festival of Lights. People don't tend to say these greetings every time they see each other on Hanukkah if they see each other a lot but if it is just in passing you might say it more than once usually accompanied by an additional phrase like "Blessings upon your family" or "May your candles burn bright tonight"

6: Only 1 candle on the menorah has a special name and that is the Shamash. This is the central candle on most menorahs and is used to light the other eight candles. So on night one of Hanukkah you light the Shamash and then the Shamash is used to light the candle for the night and so on. For a Shamash to be considered kosher, which just means in line with Jewish rules, it cannot be the same height as the other eight candles on the menorah, it must be slightly lower or slightly higher.