I would like to eat healthier and read at least 20 books in 2016.

In 1981, the Holga camera made its first appearance in Hong Kong in the hopes that it would serve as a low-budget, everyday-sort of camera for the Chinese. While it is merely a medium format 120 film camera made mostly of plastic, many people have caught onto this photography, fascinated by the effects the Holga has on its pictures.

These distorted effects include but are not limited to blur, vignetting, and light leaks.

Menorah on the first night

This year, Chanukah began on Sunday December 6, 2015. As it was the first night of Chanukah, and it fell on a weekend, we invited a couple of our friends over for dinner. We exchanged gifts, ate latkes, sufganiyot (jelly donuts), and matzah ball soup (while this is more of a Passover thing, we eat it all through the year), and lit the candles on the menorahs and chanukiahs together.

Latkes

The next morning, I ate a leftover sufganiyot for breakfast from the night before, which is one of my favorite things about Chanukah. The food is always amazing and there is almost always guaranteed to be leftovers! Later that night, it was just the four of us (my mom, dad, brother, and me). We repeated most of everything we had the night before, eating traditional Chanukah foods and reciting the prayers over the candles before lighting them. Plus, it was the night of sock presents. Lots and lots of sock presents.

The said socks

Candles on the second night

The third night was Tuesday, and my parents had a concert to go to. They quickly lit the candles with my brother and I before leaving in a rush. They trusted my brother and I in not burning the house down (you aren’t allowed to blow out the candles and have to wait until they are reduced to smoke and wax), and luckily, our efforts in not doing so were successful.

Some decorations

Wednesday, we lit four candles (though five in total if you count the helper candle, also known as the shamas). My parents had both gotten home earlier than usual from work that night, so we all ate dinner together at the table, which was nice considering this is something that doesn’t happen too often. We watched our weekly tv shows afterwards as well and enjoyed hanging out with each other. This is probably my favorite part of the holiday as I enjoy hanging out with my family.

My brother with a gift

Thursday night, while not the last night, is the night where this essay will have to end considering the essay is due Friday. My family and I lit five candles (though six, actually) and had a relatively regular night. We celebrated by playing dreidel and eating gelt (chocolate “coins”).

A spinning dreidel

Chanukah, while not the most important holiday in the Jewish religion, is still a fun one to celebrate. I look forward to the last few nights of Chanukah as it will end this Sunday December 13, and some family friends will be coming over on the remaining days (we’ve still got 6,7, and 8 left). After that, the holiday won’t happen for over another year. As the holiday is aligned with the solar calendar rather than our secular one, all of the Jewish holidays bounce around our year, landing anywhere from late November, December, and sometimes extending into early January. Next year (my last Chanukah at home before college–yikes), Chanukah will begin on Christmas Eve and end on New Year’s Day.

Until then, I’ll just have to enjoy Chanukah while it’s here now. Chag sameach (happy holiday). 🙂

This year, my topic for my photo essay will be Hanukkah. To find inspiration, I looked up what other photographers have done with this subject in years past. In 2014, Sharon Altshul wrote a photo essay on Hanukkah. She uses her pictures to explain how we celebrate the holiday. Some of these picture include menorahs, Jewish sayings on the holiday (that relates to the game of dreidel–it’s what the letters on the dreidel stand for), and suffganiot (donuts, basically). Maybe I will do something similar to her photo essay with my own six pictures by taking pictures of things Hanukkah-related and how my own family celebrates the holiday.

Here is a link to her site:
http://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=37&ARTICLE_ID=55349