Every year for Hanukkah, Jewish people play dreidel, a game whose origins dates back to the time of the Maccabees.
While the sides of the dreidel may be unfamiliar to those who don’t know Hebrew, the rules are straightforward for this popular Hanukkah game.
Let’s break down how to play, the lore behind the iconic game, and even introduce you to a spicy drinking game version.
How to play the Dreidel Game
Let’s cover the basics.
A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides. Each side has a different Hebrew letter. Outside of Israel, the four letters are nun, gimmel, hey, shin, representing “nes gadol haya sham” (“A great miracle happened there”).
In Israel, the shin is replaced with a peh, representing “nes gadol haya po” (“A great miracle happened here”).
These are the rules for the classic children’s version:
Why do Jews play with dreidels on Hanukkah?
The most popular explanation for why we spin the dreidel on Hanukkah is connected to the Hanukkah story.
In 175 BCE, King Antiochus Epiphanes forbade Jews from keeping Shabbat and Jewish holidays, ordered Jewish people to eat non-kosher food, worship Greek idols, and banned Jews from teaching or studying Torah.
Of course, Jewish people persisted in secret.
At school, children were said to keep spinning tops in their pockets so if Greek soldiers came to check on them, the students could quickly take out their dreidels and explain that they were just playing games.
According to the tale, this allowed a generation of Jewish children to continue studying Torah and living Jewishly.
How to play the Dreidel Drinking Game
Like Jewish people joke at almost every holiday: they tried to kill us, we won, let’s drink!
So, without further ado…
Here are the official Dreidel Drinking game rules (according to Custom & Craft)
(Nun)— Nobody drinks.
(Gimel)— Everybody drinks!
(Hei)— Just the player drinks.
(Shin)— The player gives a drink to another player of their choosing.
If you want to make your drinks festive as well, check out Unpacked’s guide to five easy Hanukkah cocktails.
Have fun, stay safe and let us know if you played on Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok!
