Emil was very excited, but nervous.
This year, he would get to light the candles on the Menorah. Charlotte had always done it each year, but he was ready to have a turn. He was nervous, because he was going to have to explain the story behind the celebration for the other dolls, even though they had heard it before, each year, from Charlotte.
Emil only had to tell the story on the first night, before he lit the first candle. While it was still light outside, the dolls got everything set up. Emil put the menorah on the table, and Charlotte got two candles out of the box. That's all they needed for the first night.
Finally, they were ready! They just had to wait for sunset, which arrived at 4:30 PM where they all live.
The dolls assembled around the table. Emil was ready to start his story.
Emil took a deep breath. "Many years ago," he began, looking anxiously at Charlotte, "before dolls like us existed, an evil king took over the temple where people who believe as we do, the Jewish people, held their group prayers and services."
Charlotte nodded, so he would know he was telling it correctly.
"The evil king would not let the people use the temple anymore," Emil continued. "This place was very important to the people, because they felt close to God there."
"The king kept them out of this special place," Emil said, "but the people didn't give up. After a lot of struggle, and led by a brave leader named Judah Maccabee (MAC-uh-bee)," Emil said, "they finally took the temple back."
"When the people had their temple back, they decided to have a special service to make the temple God's again," Emil continued. "They lit the special lamps they used in the temple with the little bit of lamp oil they had left. It was only enough for one day, but it was all they had."
Emil paused in the story, not because he couldn't remember what came next, but for effect. He wanted everyone to think about what he had just said. The other dolls all thought about how the service was very important to these people. They thought about how the people must be sad that they didn't have enough oil.
Emil explained, "That was before electricity. The lamps they used burned the way a candle burns, but using olive oil for fuel instead of wax, like a candle."
"So there they were," Emil continued, "with only enough oil for the lamps to burn for one day, so they lit them anyway. Do you remember what happened then?" he asked.
"The lamps stayed lit!" cried Pippa. (She remembered the story from last year. She had expected the lamps to go out, but then the way Charlotte had told the story, they didn't. The lamps burned for eight days!) "It was a miracle!" Pippa exclaimed.
"It was a miracle," Emil agreed. He had a feeling he should get on with the story, or Pippa would take over, and he would get mixed up. "It was a miracle," he said, finding his place in the story in his mind, "and once a year we celebrate the miracle by lighting candles, adding another candle each night to the number of candles lit the nights before, using the Menorah to hold all the candles. We do this for eight nights. There are eight candles, to represent each of the eight nights the oil lasted."
"But there are places for nine candles," Pippa said. "That's because the Menorah has a place in the middle for the lighter candle."
"Yes," Emil said. "Do you remember what that candle is called?" When Pippa shook her head, he looked around at the others.
"It's the shamus." Billy said. He remembered that. It was his fourth Hanukkah celebration.
Emil nodded. Billy was right. Then he lit a match and carefully used it to light the candle in the middle, the shamus. He knew he had to be very careful with the match. (The dolls knew not to use matches unless The Writer or her husband could be there to watch. No one wanted to melt their fingers!)
"We always need a human adult watching when we use matches," Charlotte told Pippa, in case she had forgotten this rule. (Pippa tends to forget rules sometimes. Rules are not always her highest priority, so it's good to remind her.)
"That's right, Charlotte," said Mandy, "and it's good The Writer is taking the photos."
"That's because Billy has to be in these photos," Pippa said. (She knew that Billy takes a lot of the photos for the stories, using the phone and his tripod. He could set the timer and be in a photo, too, but he just does that for group photos, where everyone can sit still and look at the camera, not when you're busy doing things.)
Back to our story:
Then Emil took the shamus and used it to light the first candle. "We start on the right side," he said, "because Hebrew, the language these people spoke, and that we still use, is written from right to left."
"That's different from most languages," Mariah pointed out. "We write English from left to right, but Arabic is also written from the right." (Mariah is learning Arabic, and she and Charlotte have talked about this feature in both of the special languages they were learning.)
Emil felt proud, because he was learning Hebrew now, too, and Charlotte was helping him.
The dolls looked expectantly at Emil. They knew he still had more to say. They were ready for him to go on.
"After we light the first candle we say a prayer to thank God for the miracle long ago and to ask for God's protection," Emil said.
Then Emil and Charlotte looked at each other recited a prayer in Hebrew, the special language they use for worship services.
"Now we let the candles burn," Pippa said, "right?"
Emil agreed. "We have to let the candles burn all the way down, so we will leave the Menorah here, where it's safe."
It was time for a song. Mariah moved around to where Charlotte was, so the two of them could sing, since they were the only two dolls who can open their mouths. The other dolls hummed along, because you can hum with your mouth closed.
After they were done, all the dolls left the room to get the presents they had for each other.
"Good job!" Charlotte whispered to Emil as she walked by.
Emil would have blushed at her praise, but his vinyl always stays the same color. (To make it a different color, the color has to be put in at the factory.) He felt pleased, though, and he didn't have to pretend. Feeling pleased was for real.
"Hurry up, Emil!" cried Pippa, who had come back to see why it was taking him so long. "It's time to open our presents! We get to play the game with the special top and pretend to eat some chocolate money!"
Emil lit a new candle every night. Charlotte was there to help him in case he forgot anything, but he didn't forget anything. At the end of The Festival of Lights, the menorah looked like this.
On the last day of Hanukkah, Emil looked into the box of candles. "They're almost all gone," he pointed out. "How many did we use? The new box is almost empty!"
Happy Hanukkah to all the children and dolls who celebrate it, or another way to say that is Chag Sameach! It sounds sort of like HAGH sa-MAY-agh, but not exactly. You can find the pronunciation here. It means "happy holidays," and if you learn it, you can say it for any holiday.
Can you figure out how many candles they needed? They started out with two candles. They let them burn all the way down. Each day, they replaced the candles from the day before and added one...until they had nine on the menorah. How many had they used after the last day when the last candles had finished burning? It's important to know, so you don't have to go to the store in the middle of celebrating Hanukkah! We will give you the answer below the dolls' names!
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
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