A Lego Hanukiah

*
This Sunday at Sunday School there is a contest for the most original menorah. Shy has decided she wants to make one out of Legos. Now she has not played with Legos a lot, but we have an abundance of them that were both handed down through the family and also bought when our son Barry was a young boy.

Last night we picked out all of the blue and white legos. I thought there would be a lot, but it turns out that Red is the most common lego color. (at least in our collection)

Unfortunately, all the white ones have a bit of gray associated with them and the blue ones are also a bit old and dusty. So, step one after sorting out all the blue and white was to place them all into a couple of serving bowls with hot water and Dawn. Hopefully, this will give us clean legos on which to place out candles. After all, the last thing we need is to start a fire from any dust and lint hanging around our Lego menorah.

In any event, tonight we will start planning the Menorah. We will have to decide how it will look ,and how big it will be. How to arrange the candles and how to make it useable. After all, a Menorah is no good if it isn't useable.

Now, to move on to this whole Menorah thing. Most people thnink that you use a Menorah for Hannukah. Technically, a Menorah is a seven branched candle holder and has been a symbol of the Jewish religion for centuries. The Hannukah "Menorah" actually has 9 branches for lights. As a result, it is actually called a Hanukiah. There is one candle branch for each of the 8 nights of Hannukah, and then a ninth branch which typically stands a little higher then the other eight. That is for the "Shamash". This is the candle that is used to light all the other candles.

I don't know why I mention all of that here, except that it is helpful to know exactly what you are making before you actually make it. So if anyone has any Lego Hanukiah ideas for us, we will start building tonight and hopefully finish it either tomorrow or Saturday so that it is ready to go Sunday.

*