On Wednesday, December 11, students had the opportunity to participate in the Dreidel Competition during lunch to celebrate Hanukkah. Over two dozen students (6th, 7th, and 8th graders) gathered in room 9 to spin dreidels and see who could collect the most coins. 

To play Dreidel, you need at least two players, but the more people there are, the more fun it is to play. Players will split the tokens evenly amongst themselves and then everyone will put one token into the center of the playing area or the “pot”. Every time the pot is empty, or a new round starts or the pot only has one token in it, players will each add one token to the pot. Each of the four sides of the Dreidel has one word on it: Shin, Gimel, Hey, or Nun. Players will take turns spinning the Dreidel and the side they land on shows what they should do next. Shin means you would take one of your tokens and add it to the pot, Gimel means you would take everything in the pot, Hey means you would only take half of the tokens in the pot, and Nun means you do nothing. If you run out of tokens, you are out. Once one player has taken all the tokens, the game is finished!

When asked how she felt about this event, 6th grader Campbell De Witt said, “I had a fun time playing the Dreidel game at lunch today.”

This year, Hanukkah falls from Wednesday, December 25, 2024, to Thursday, January 2, 2025. It officially starts and ends at sundown on those dates. Along with playing Dreidel, other Hanukkah traditions include lighting the menorah, eating latkes and Challah bread, and singing songs.

Happy Hanukkah!