Dec 18 The first night of Hanukkah

The songs:

1.  Judah Maccabee   written and performed by Rabbi Joe Black
   2.  Honeyky Hanuka  words - Woody Guthie; music and performed by The Klezmatics

Celebration of the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah mostly takes place in the evenings. In the Jewish calendar, at this time of year a new day begins at 18 minutes before sunset of what most of us would think of as the previous day. Thus, this year the first day of Hanukkah is tomorrow but the first night is tonight. Got it? 

I won’t try to explain how they calculate on their lunar calendar which night or day Hanukkah begins compared to the solar calendar that both they and we use for everyday events, because that is very complicated. Personally, I just looked it up on the internet.  Here in Victoria BC the celebration of Hanukkah begins today at 4:01 PM because tomorrow is the first day of the Festival of Lights. (And the last Hanukkah Night will be at the end of Christmas Day.)

Today’s songs relate to the midwinter Jewish holiday. Judah Macabee tells the origin story of Hanukkah.  It was written in 1990 by Joe Black, who is now the Senior Rabbi of Denver’s Temple Emanuel. This rendition is from a live concert performance he did on the sixth night of Hanukkah in the year 5767 (I warned you it is complicated) with Chicago’s Maxwell Street Klezmer Band.  It comes from the concert album Eight Nights of Joy they released in 2008 (our calendar.)

Woody and Marjorie with their children in 1960; from left to right Joady, Nora and Arlo.   Photo: Dave Gahr  

The second song is Honeyky Hanuka. The words for this children’s song along with five other previously unknown written by Woody were found posthumously in his papers by his daughter Nora in a 1949 notebook.  In that year Woody had recorded two Hanukkah songs at Folkways Records intended for an album of them, but the project was never completed.

Apparently neither of her older brothers, Joady and Arlo, remembered having heard the songs. Nora, who heads the Woodie Guthrie Foundation and Woody’s archive, brought the six posthumous Hanukkah songs to The Klezmatics to have them set to music. In the case of this song it was Frank London who created this melody for it in 2003. Lorin Sklamberg is the voice you hear singing. This recording, along with the seven other Hanukkah songs that Woody wrote, are on The Klezmatics very entertaining 2003 album Happy Joyous Hanukkah.

The Klezmatics   photo credit

For much more information about the history of Hanukkah, or about Woody Guthrie’s connections to Jewish culture, or if you just want to hear more Hanukkah music, I have a great links for you. Last year I dedicated four of my songs-of-the-day and their associated heavily researched write-ups to this very subject. Here they are:

1. Nov 25, 2021  Hanukkah's history Part 1 - Rebellion, rededication, and an eight-day celebration of gaining freedom from foreign rule. Song: Chanukah Light from Oil for the Lamps, a folk opera.

2. Dec 1, 2021   Hanukkah’s history Part 2 - Talmudic reinterpretation of the meaning of the festival; oil and becoming a Festival of Light. Songs: Three Hanukkah classics; Banu Choshech, the Candle Blessings, and Ocho Kandelikas.

3. Dec 3, 2021   Hanukka’s history Part 3 – Transformation for new times; becoming Hanukkah as we know it today. Songs: Hanukkah humour; The Latke Song (Mrs. Maccabeus) and Is it Hanukah or Chanukah?

4. Dec 5, 2021   The Jewish side of Woody Guthrie and more about his posthumous Hanukkah songs. Song: A very touching rendition of Woody’s Hanuka Dance.