Chelsea Zhu is a Canadian student from St. Robert Catholic High School, Ontario. She enjoys drawing, watching YouTube, playing games, and sleeping in her free time. She lives in Markham, Ontario with her parents and older sister.
About the Author
The religion I have decided to write about is Judaism, but the focus is Hanukkah. It discusses the different traditions that take place during this holiday, as well as discussing the history or way things came to be of certain aspects, like the use of olive oil. This book is a part of a three-book series that explores different holidays in each religion; the other religions are Christianity and Islam. I chose to write about Judaism and Hanukkah because I feel that although it is a relatively well known holiday, there is still a lot of information that is unknown to many people, especially children. From personal experience, I did not know much about this holiday until I was much older; even then, there was still a lot that I was unaware of. As a result, I wanted to write about Hannukah to teach children who may be unfamiliar with Hanukkah about this holiday and what activities take place during it. The target audience for this is children between the ages of eight to ten.
Author's Notes
Hi, my name is Monica. I’m Jewish, and so is my family. We are celebrating Hannukah, a Jewish holiday. Hanukkah means “dedication” in Hebrew. It marks the re-opening and completion of the second temple in Jerusalem, a city in Israel. I’ll tell you more about what cool and fun things we do during this holiday.
This is a Dreidel, which is a top that has four sides that each have special meaning. It’s super fun to play with people, but it does get competitive sometimes!
Of course, food is the best part of any holiday. Some of the foods we eat are potato pancakes, jam doughnuts, and fritters. Most of the food we eat is fried, but my favorite is the jam doughnuts. Yum!
This is a Menorah. It has 9 candles and every day another candle is lit. Do you see the one in the middle? That’s the ninth one, called a Shamash. It’s higher than the other 8 candles to separate it from the rest because it’s the only one used for light. The candles burn for at least 30 minutes after the sun sets.