To Remind Us of Days Long Ago

To Remind Us of Days Long Ago

Noel Laflin

12-2-18

When I was in sixth grade, we had to learn the Hanukkah song for that year’s Christmas pageant. It was Miss. Nakashian's nod to inclusiveness.

I loved the song and have never forgotten the words.

Testing my memory, I looked them up just now and see that our music instructor had made two small changes, however. One of the lines reads: “Gather round the table, we'll give you a treat - sevivonim to play with and latkes to eat.”

Apparently Miss. Nakashian thought that we’d never pronounce sevivonin correctly, so changed it to spinning tops. She also changed latkes to pancakes.

She was probably right about us kids screwing up the word sevivonim – I had to listen to it half a dozen times this morning in order to finally get it right.

But she should have left latkes, as it was, as the word is not tough to say – and they really are pretty tasty.

“And while we are playing
The candles are burning low
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago.”