Beautiful Hanukkah

As I mentioned yesterday, Hanukkah began at sundown on Sunday. I missed a Hanukkah post because the 22^nd was also Annunciation Sunday, and the yahrzeit of my friend David’s death. But the beauty of Hanukkah is that it lasts for eight nights, so I’m still in the bracket.

So my music today is “Ocho Kandelikas”, which is a Ladino Hanukkah song. Ladino is the language of Sephardic Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. (We’re more familiar with Yiddish, which is the language of Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe.) Just as you can limp along understanding Yiddish if you speak German, if you speak Spanish, a lot of Ladino words will make sense.

So, “Ocho Kandelikas” means “Eight Candles”.

The song was written in 1983 by a Bosnian named Flory Jagoda, who fled with her family following the Nazi invasion of then-Yugoslavia. She married an American soldier after the war and lives somewhere in Northern Virginia (according to Wikipedia).

The lyrics are not rocket science; I think a lot of the attraction is the energetic tempo. Although I cannot argue with the line, “We’re going to eat little pastries with small almonds and honey.”

Here is “Pink Martini” performing it. Crank up the volume and let loose a little.