Sukkot

Five days after Yom Kippur is the festival of Sukkot.  Sukkot is a joyous holiday and is refered to in Jewish prayer as Z'man Simchateniu (the Season of our rejoicing).  This holiday is the only festival associated with an explicit commandment to rejoice.  It is the last of three pilgrimage festivals, the others being Passover and Shavu'ot.  Sukkot commemorates the 40 year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert and living in temporary shelters.  Sukkot is also a harvest festival and time to give thanks for the bounty of the earth.  The word Sukkot means "booths".  For this holiday followers of Judaism may stay in a Sukkah or build a Sukkah for eating, entertaining, or even sleeping during the seven days that Sukkot lasts.

When I explained to the boys that Sukkot is a festival to celebrate and give thanks- my boys said "Again?!"  There are a lot of religious festivals in September about celebrating the harvest and being thankful.  They weren't complaining though- autumn foods and the weather starting to change is a nice combo and they are happy to help with the baking. 

My boys are always up for building a fort so we built our own Sukkah, which was a much smaller version to what would actually be used, and made paper lanterns to decorate it.  We were inspired by this craft here.  When I saw these paper lanterns I knew we had to make them.  I used to have a huge craft book when I was little and these lanterns were one of the crafts I would always make.  I would make these with my siblings and we would hang them from a paper chain across the room.   The boys and I made a few and attached them to the top of our Sukkah and had a snack.

Supplies:

To make them you will need construction paper, scissors, and tape.  

Directions:

Fold a piece of construction paper in half.  At the folded end cut a slit until about an inch from the open end.  Do this about an inch apart down the whole piece of folded paper.  When finished unfold and take the ends and join them together so lantern forms a cylinder (the folded line will be at the middle of the lantern-my middle son said it was at the equator of the lantern).  Attach the ends and add a "handle"  We just cut a small strip of black construction paper to be our handle and attached it to the top of the lantern. Viola-paper lantern!

Fold paper in half. 

Cut slits into the paper from folded end  until about an inch to the open end.

Tape each end.

Proudly displaying his lantern.

In our "Sukkah"

For our food we made pumpkin challah.  Our family loves to eat challah so I was happy to have a chance to make it and also liked the twist of making it an autumnal version with the addition of pumpkin.  I definitely did not knead the dough long enough (my 17 month old managed to crawl unto the table knock the flour down and went for my camera- all about 5 minutes before I needed to leave to pick up my 6 year old from the bus stop.  Time management is obviously a skill I am still mastering)  so our challah was a bit lumpy- and I'm thinking maybe somewhere I went wrong- perhaps too much yeast?  I don't know something was off.  It tasted a little better when we made it into french toast the next evening (I'm a big fan of breakfast for dinner).  The recipe we followed can be found here.  I won't give our step by step because I don't want you to end up with so-so challah.  But not all was lost.  The boys enjoyed making it and I am determined to try again hopefully with tastier results.

Stirring- notice the flour on the nose from his extreme scooping technique

Painting on the egg wash so our lumpy challah could be shiny.

Our lumpy challah.

Holy Cross Day

September 14th is The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, The Triumph of the Cross, or Holy Cross Day.  It is celebrated in different Christian denominations, including Greek Orthodox, Anglican, and Catholic.

According to legends that spread widely, the True Cross was discovered in 326 by Saint Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, during a pilgrimage she made to Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was then built at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena and Constantine. 

"The date of the feast marks the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335. This was a two-day festival: although the actual consecration of the church was on September 13, the cross itself was brought outside the church on September 14 so that the clergy and faithful could pray before the True Cross, and all could come forward to venerate it. "(http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/243.html)

Cross

For observance of this holiday Catholic and Anglican's will hold services with red vestments worn.  In Eastern and Oriental Orthodox practices there are fasting and feasts around the holiday.  The Ethiopian Orthodox also celebrate the finding of the Cross however they follow the Ethiopian Calendar and celebrate Holy Cross day on Meskerem 17 which corresponds to September 27.

The Cross today is a symbol of Christian belief.  Christians believe that Jesus, was the son of God and died for the sins of man on the Cross.  Therefore, for Christians, the significance of finding the Cross of Jesus's crucifixion is great.

For our craft we made a "stained glass" cross using tempera paint, parchment paper, and construction paper.  A stained glass looking cross seemed like a good nod to how the inside of churches are typically decorated.  To make this I drew a  cross onto the construction paper and cut it out.  

Cross cutout of the construction paper

I then got out the tempera paint and let my Middle son finger paint and mix the colors on a piece of parchment paper.  It was a fun way to review what happens when you mix colors too.  

Color mixing finger painting.

When he was done I taped another piece of parchment on top of his work of art and sealed in the sides.  Then I taped his masterpiece on the back of the construction paper with the cross.  When we taped it up on the window the light shone through showing his paint swirls.  I used red construction paper since that is the color used to decorate the church on Holy Cross Day.

Finished product- our "stained glass" cross

For our food I didn't see any obvious food connection to the holiday so we made hot crossed buns.  While this is a recipe that is often associated with Good Friday or Easter I thought it fit well for Holy Cross Day.   Recipe found here

Our version of the recipe was:

For the buns:

• 2 cups 2% Milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable Oil
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 package (2 1/4 Teaspoons) Active Dry Yeast
• 4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup (additional) Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• If you want -raisins, dried cranberries, or currant

For the glaze:

• 1 whole Egg White

For the Icing:

• 1 whole Egg White
•  Powdered Sugar
•  Splash Of Milk

Preparation Instructions

BUNS

Combine 2 cups milk, vegetable oil, and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan. Stir and heat until very warm but not boiling. Turn off the heat and allow to cool until mixture is still warm, but not hot--about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle yeast over mixture. Add 4 cups of flour and stir to combine. Mixture will be very sticky. Cover with a towel and set aside for 1 hour. (I got distracted and didn't add the flour right away it still rose but not as much as I think it would have)

Pouring yeast into milk, oil, and sugar mixture.

Add 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir till combined.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and whatever other spices you want to use.

Lightly flour surface. Press to slightly flatten dough. Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Then fold the dough over on itself and flatten again so the dough is "plain" again. Repeat the sugar process, then fold the dough again.  This is also the point where you would add raisins, currants, or cranberries if you were adding them.  We didn't add them because my oldest doesn't like them and we didn't have any in the house at the time.

Adding sugar to the dough

Pinch off ping pong or golf ball-size bunches of dough. With floured hands, quickly roll it into a ball, then turn the edges under themselves slightly. Place on a lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes or if you are approaching bedtime like we were put on the glaze and throw them in the oven:)

Putting on the glaze

PREHEAT OVEN TO 400 degrees

GLAZE

Take  egg white and brush onto each roll.

Bake for 20 minutes, give or take, or until tops of buns have turned nice and golden brown.

Remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Waiting for the buns to get done baking.

ICING

Mix 1 egg white with enough powdered sugar for icing to be very thick. Splash in milk as needed for consistency.

Add icing to a small Ziploc bag and snip the corner. Make icing crosses on each roll, making sure they're completely cooled first.

Finished product

Before the first bite. 

These went over very well in our house.  The boys could barley wait for them to cool so we had a few hot and the icing melted and dripped but was delicious.  More were enjoyed at breakfast the next day. 

Yom Kippur

Before I start on Yom Kippur I want to explain a little about the blog this month.  I kind of liked the idea to use September as a start date so I could start when the kids went back to school.   Now that I've researched all the holidays for September I see it wasn't an ideal month to start a craft and food site for the holidays.  There is a lot of fasting and focus on the non-material.  While still fascinating to learn things we didn't know, this weeks holidays in particular did not lend themselves to much baking or crafting.  But never fear there is lots of baking and crafting coming next week! Just no food this week.  How can I cook to celebrate a holiday with a main component being fasting?  Any ideas of what you do if you observe Yom Kippur would be greatly appreciated!  Ok, so onto the holiday.....

Yom Kippur comes ten days after Rosh Hashanah. The name "Yom Kippur" means "Day of Atonement".  This is a day of asking God forgiveness of your sins.  Yom Kippur is a more solemn day then Rosh Hashanah and is a day of continued reflection.  According to Jewish tradition at Yom Kippur's end God seals the Book of Life and the Book of Death for the coming year.  This means that God has decided who lives and dies during the next year.  This is a day of introspection and is also a time of fasting (both food and water for 25 hours) and abstaining from other bodily activities.  Many people wear white on Yom Kippur to symbolize a pure and clean way that people intend to start the new year.  Often times people do not wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur as a symbol of denying certain luxuries, because back in the time when the Torah was written, leather shoes were one of the only comfortable shoe options. People would often go barefoot but today people will defer to sneakers or other footwear if they chose to avoid leather shoes.

As I stated in the Rosh Hashanah post, sin is a difficult idea for young children to grasp.  So I again talked about it being a time to think about not doing things that are naughty or hurtful or mean and thinking about a way to do better.  I decided not to talk about the book of life with our boys since this past year we had two deaths in the family and I wasn't ready to go over that subject with them again at this point.  I do think if your kids are old or mature enough that it is an important part of Yom Kippur and should be discussed.  Next year I plan on going over the book of life aspect with my guys.

 There is no food project for Yom Kippur since it is a time of fasting.  For our craft project we made cardboard slippers that could be an alternative to leather footwear.  We were inspired by the craft found here.

Materials:

Cardboard (We used frozen pizza boxes) 

tape

crayons and washi tape for decorating. 

Method: 

I had the boys trace about a half inch away from their feet so their "slippers" would fit their feet.  They took turns tracing each other's feet.  Then I drew two "rainbow" shapes to cut to use as the tops. 

Tracing feet on cardboard.

Outlines for top and bottom of the slippers

After cutting out the shapes we fit the slippers and taped the tops in place.  I started with scotch tape but switched to duct because it need to hold together for when they were worn. 

Taped bottom- notice the reused pizza box

Then I let the boys decorate.  My Middle did his quick and they turned out cute and sloppy.  We had to use duct tape after the first wear because the regular scotch couldn't handle the running around.  My older son took his time and found some yarn from our Mabon craft (coming soon) to wrap around his slippers so they would be softer. 

Middle's slippers.

Thanks for reading.  If you have crafts you do or your family did for Yom Kippur I would love to hear more feel free to message me or leave a comment.

For knowledge of Yom Kippur I mainly used the sites chabad.org and reformjudaism.org. 

Paryushana

A religion which I was not familiar with at all was Jainism.  When I saw on the interfaith calendar Paryushana, I had no idea what the holiday was about at all.  So again I went to search the internet.  Jainism is an ancient Indian religion and is a close cousin of Buddhism.   The religion encourages days of fasting and places value on all life-including insects.  Jain's practice nonviolence and do not eat meat.   The word Paryushana means "to stay in one place", which signifies a time of reflection and repentance.  This holiday includes taking on vows, or renewing old, and fasting.  This holiday is about recommitting the self to sprituality.  Paryushana is observed though fasting, meditation, and seeking forgiveness.  The observance of the holiday is for 8 or 10 days and is a time to listen to the statement of the Dharma, meditate, and practice self control.

Jain symbol- to stop and reflect. 

With fasting and meditation as the main events for this holiday I did not do a food project for this holiday.  We did make a banner of the Jain hand symbol.

A site with good information on Jain symbols can be found here.   We have a cold running through the house so only my oldest was up for the project today.  He painted the Jain hand symbol.  

We just used white construction paper, a crayon, some dot paints, ink pad for finger painting, and yarn to hang the banner. 

First my oldest just traced his hand.

Hand before its decorated.

According to ejainism.com:

 "The palm of the hand signifies the assurance; 'do not be afraid', indicating that human beings suffering due to karmic bondage do not need to be disheartened. Another meaning is “stop and think before you act to assure that all possible violence is avoided.” This gives us a chance to scrutinize our activities to be sure that they will not hurt anyone by our words, thoughts, or actions. We are also not supposed to ask or encourage others to take part in any harmful activity."

Finger painting.

While the Jain hand is not Paryushana specific it seemed like a good craft as an intro to Jainism.  I know I had seen this symbol before and did not know what it meant or what it was linked to so it was a lesson and introduction for all of us.

Finishing up

Very proud and very goofy with his banner.

I explained that this holiday was about reflection (this is a big theme for September holidays in general) and meditation.  Instead for our quiet time that day, we did a little guided imagery meditation so that my kids would have an idea of what meditation was like.  My Mom actually used to do guided imagery with us when we were younger so it was a nice way to not only find a way to connect to the Jain holiday of Paryushana, but also a nice way to pass on this experience to my kids that I enjoyed when I was young.

My guided imagery: 

You are laying on a warm beach and listening to the waves crash against the shore. 

As you lay there you feel your body becoming more relaxed. 

The relaxation starts in your toes and slowly moves its way up your legs (you can move up the relaxation up through the body until you've reach the top of the head and the whole body is relaxed) 

Mama comes up to you with a big balloon.  You take the balloon and you put all your worries into it.  You fill up that balloon until you have no worries left anywhere inside of you. 

Then you feel the string of the balloon in your hand and feel the tug of the balloon as it starts to soar toward the sky. 

Let go of the string and watch the balloon slowly float away from you. 

As the balloon floats away all your troubles have floated away with it. 

You are still relaxed on the beach and watching your balloon fly farther and farther away until its gone and you can't see your worries anymore. 

Then its good to sit in silence for a little and let your kids lead when they are ready to get up.   

My main sources for information on the Jain religion and Paryushana were: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/american-jains-_n_3782074.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/jainism/beliefs/dharma.shtml