By Yisrael Rice
 | On Chanukah we give the children gelt. Why?
6 Comments Posted
I've heard it has something to do with having reached the majority (half or more) of Chanukah.
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the 5th night can never fall on shabbat so it is customy to give gelt then
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I heard that the less religious Jews give gfts and that more religious Jews do not. I also heard that some give inexpensive gifts are a way of gift giving without giving it importance and is thus done by people that are more religious than those that give expensive gifts. Of course, I have heard the opposite to this too. What is true?
Thanks
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We're in a non-observant community, but our family tradition is mostly Jewish-themed gifts. This year we've gone for a number of books, some software, but all with Jewish themes. Though we lean toward "fun" rather than overly serious- though as my oldest gets older, they're getting more serious. Every year, I say that they didn't want us to learn, so we should learn to show they still haven't won.
We don't set it as building value of gifts or anything- in fact we put a number or symbol on each package and draw randomly what's getting opened that night.
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Traditionally, money—called gelt—is given on Chanukah. It seems that a lot of the gift giving seen today is a spinoff of the non-Jewish culture, and not a Jewish custom. For this reason, many traditional Jews follow the age old tradition of giving money, as opposed to other gifts.
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