Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Happy Hanukkah!

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, which means that it was time to pull this out:





I stitched this up last year from a free pattern that I found on the web:


via http://www.koolerdesign.com/fcstardavid.aspx


The symbol in the center is chai, the Hebrew word for life. I'm not an especially religious person, but when we lit our menorah this evening, we spent a few moments reflecting on the blessings that are recited for Hanukkah, and this one which is read on the first night of Hanukkah really resonated with me:


Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion. 


Baruch Atah Ad-noi Elo-hei-nu Melech Ha-olam She-heh-che-yah-nu Ve-kiye-ma-nu Ve-kiye-gi-ah-nu Liz-man Ha-zeh.


I hope that you have also found a moment to reflect on the blessings in your life today -- Happy Hanukkah!

3 comments:

  1. I just stumbled upon your blog thanks to Needlework News.
    You are so right about the blessing! We just light our candles every year without even thinking about it. I should really try to change that.
    I love the cross stitch! Finally a Hanukkah design that's not tacky! Would you mind sharing which colors you used? I may have to make this since Hanukkah decorations are so hard to come by.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jule -- thanks for coming by!

    I made this piece last year, and I didn't write down the precise colors that I chose. But I just held some thread from my floss-box up against it, and I'm pretty sure that I used: DMC 726, DMC 311, DMC 334 and DMC 3755.

    Happy stitching! x x x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks so much! I started stitching but didn't finish in time. Oh well, plenty of time to finish and frame before next year.

    ReplyDelete