Wishing everyone a Chodesh Tov, it is now the Jewish month of Kislev, the month in which we celebrate Chanukah, so let the Chanukah crafting begin!
I am sharing this post from a few years back once again because I'm on a mission to let everyone know that the dove with an olive branch is truly a symbol of Chanukah. And as a symbol of peace, well we sure could use a ton of that right now! Keep on reading for an amazing story regarding these origami doves!
Listen to what happened a few years ago: I made origami doves with olive branches because I figured, why not? Doves while often used by other religions as symbols around holiday time are certainly just as relevant to Judaism, not to mention that it is a kosher animal, and it had that amazing role of bringing back the olive branch to Noah, in his ark. So last year there were many origami doves in our home. And then because Chanukah is all about miracles, I was told the following and looked it up and sure enough, WOW:
According to a Jewish oral tradition, as explained by the Imrei Noam, the olives from the branch that Noach [Noah] received from the dove were made into pure olive oil. The oil was given to Noach’s firstborn, Shem. Shem sealed this little jar of oil and gave it to Abraham as a gift. Abraham, in turn, handed it over to Isaac who passed it down to Jacob. According to our sages, Jacob forgot some small jars on the other side of the Jabbok River and returned to retrieve them. One of these jars was the oil from Noah’s ark. Jacob prophetically hid this oil at the site of the Holy Temple and laid the foundations for the miracle of Hanukkah. This is the oil that originated with the dove, the symbol of peace!
Wow? Yes! So lets get to work making some origami doves and telling everyone this story, as it is truly remarkable! And now for what I wrote previously not knowing of the great significance.....
Chanukah starts tomorrow night, and I am running behind with my plans for origami decorations, but I did manage to make a few origami doves with olive branches to share with you, and hopefully my plans for an origami wall hanging, origami cake toppers (for a birthday tomorrow night on the 1st night of Chanukah) and an origami garland or two will materialize tonight. I am actually thinking that this origami dove would be great done in my giant origami style, so stay tuned for that, which seems much more likely than a wall hanging, hmmmm. Origami is a great craft for all ages, and it is something one can introduce to children from a fairly young age, and as they mature they can tackle more difficult folds. There isn't anything quite like the pleasure of succesfully completing an origami animal, or an origami dreidel, or even an origami star of david, so grab some paper and lets get folding!
I attached my olive branch with a dab of glue, and also anchored some of the birds with a glue stick so they would like a bit flat.
While there are many ways to make an origami dove, this is the one I chose, and the instructions can be found here.
If you are not familiar with origami, diagrams may be difficult to follow so I suggest doing a search for an instructional video, and there are many to choose from.
Happy Chanukah and Happy Chanukah crafting!