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There are many rich musical traditions surrounding the winter Holiday Season. We are all familiar with Christmas carols and the amazing symphonic and Christmas chorale music. Many of you may be less familiar with the traditional songs that families sing to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, which occurs around the same time of year as Christmas. Chanukah, also known as the "Festival of Lights," is a very joyful holiday, dating back to the period after the reign of Alexander the Great, over 2300 years ago. During his reign, and for many years after, contrasting cultures and religions co-existed side by side. This delicate balance of multi-culturalism and religious pluralism was threatened by the oppressive policies of a new ruler, Antiochus IV, who wanted to force everyone to practice his religion. Under the threat of death, he forced the Jews to give up their religious beliefs and submit to his beliefs, gods and rituals. A Jewish army led by the Maccabee family ultimately defeated Antiochus IV. In the process of purifying and rebuilding their temple, they discovered they only had enough oil to burn the sacred lamp known as "The Eternal Light" for one day; this lamp that was supposed to burn in the Temple every day and every night. Men were sent to get more oil but it was going to take them eight days to return with it. The miracle of Chanukah occurred when the small one-day supply of oil lasted the full eight days needed to replenish the much needed oil. The holiday is traditionally celebrated by lighting candles and giving presents to children for eight consecutive days. Potato pancakes called "latkes" are eaten to remember the Maccabbes, whose mother supposedly fed them latkes to make them strong before they went into battle. Oily foods like the fried latkes and jelly doughnuts are eaten to remember the miracle of the oil. A spinning top with 4 sides called a dreydl is used to play a special game of chance. Adults and children alike spin the dreydl, which can be played as a simple children's game or an adult gambling game for money. I've arranged two Chanukah songs for the dulcimer. "The Dreydl Song", in the major Ionian mode, is perhaps the most well known of all. "S'Vivon", in the minor Aeolian mode, starts at a moderate tempo and speeds up faster and faster like the spinning top until the singers are either laughing so hard they can't sing or are exhausted. "S'Vivon" is in Hebrew, which uses a different alphabet from English. Pronounce the English version of the words phonetically, just as you read them. Listen to "The Dreydl Song" and "S'Vivon" To learn each tune, start out with the basic traditional dulcimer strum: | ↑ - ↑ ↓ | ↑ - ↑ ↓ | throughout. Later on you can vary your strum between | ↑ - ↑ ↓ | and | ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ | as indicated in the music or as you feel it. Start strumming and begin playing the melody by fretting only the notes indicated on the bottom line of the tablature. "The Dreydl Song" sounds like the type of play party song Jean Ritchie's family might have sung in Appalachia. If you want to play the tune in a more contemporary style, add the chords formed by playing all the frets indicated on the tablature lines. Note that the second part of the tune (Oh, dreydl, dreydl, dreydl, etc.) uses the same chords and style as Richard Farina playing "Pack Up Your Sorrows." It takes some practice slippin' and slidin' up and down the fretboard with your fingers to get it, but it's great fun. Practice it slow to build up to speed. "S'Vivon" reminds me of the round, "Hey Ho, Nobody Home." Kind of shows how so many different folk musics are related through the use of similar modes. Technically, the challenge of "S'Vivon" is to start slow and increase the speed to a break-neck pace... or at least until you have a big grin on your face 'cause you're having so much fun.  
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