The game of dreidel is most commonly played on Hanukkah, the festival of lights. Legend has it that Jews used dreidels

to fool the Greeks in the 19th Century–if they were caught studying Torah (an illegal activity), they would quickly pull out their dreidels and pretend to be playing the game instead.

The letters on the dreidel represent the story of Hanukkah, with the Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, hey, and shin standing

for nes gadol haya sham, or “a great miracle happened there.” In Israel, the shin is replaced with a pey to read nes gadol haya po, or “a great miracle happened here.”

Instructions for Playing the Game:

To play the game, deal every player with 10 pieces of gelt–gelt can be the traditional gold coins made of chocolate, or

something else like nuts, candies, pennies, rocks, etc.

Before each turn, each player puts one piece of gelt into the

center. Each player takes a turn rolling the dreidel. If a player

lands on:

Nun: “Nu-nu-nu-none!” The player does nothing.

Gimmel: “Gimme, gimme, gimmel!” The player wins all pieces

of gelt that are in the center!

Hey: “Oh hey, half” The player takes half of the pieces of gelt

that are in the center. (If there’s an uneven number, you can

choose as a group whether to round up or down).

Shin: “Shin, shin, put one in!” The player puts a piece of gelt in

the center.

When a player runs out of gelt, they are out. The game ends

when one player wins all of the gelt!

How to Play Dreidel

How to Play Dreidel