42 Candles

by Jamie Jay

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about

The ritual of lighting the menorah is something I've grown up with, learning to sing along to the blessing without ever reading a word of Hebrew, just copying my Dad phonetically as I got older. The tune here is the one we use at home. My pronunciation might be a little off in places and... I will *always* end up mumbling a bit just because I never really engaged with the whole religious side of things - it was always explained to me that being Jewish is far more about the community and the way you interact with people than it is about deity. Personally I tend to identify as loosely Pagan agnostic, but I still find myself coming back to this tradition whenever I can. Because almost every community, whether religious or secular, has some sort of celebration involving friends and family and food and fire - wherever there is winter, there is a need for these comforts. All this to say, here are my meandering thoughts, set against the tune of the blessing.

And for anyone wondering about the maths...

Night 1: 1 + helper candle
Night 2: 2 + helper candle

and so on.

So you end up with 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 for the nights, giving 36, plus a total of 8 additional helper candles, which is 42.

lyrics

This week I'm burning 42 candles
To light up my window and keep out the chill
They say a long time ago there was a miracle
Does it still have meaning today?

I light the first one and that lights the others
Then sing a prayer, I know how it goes
I'm not sure 'bout Jehova
If there's One King of the Universe
Why would he care about me?

I can't quite explain why
But to light up my cavern
For 8 nights in winter
With 42 candles
Still holds meaning for me.

credits

released December 1, 2022

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Jamie Jay Dartmouth, UK

he/him

Queer/trans theatre maker, LARPer and generally creative chaos entity currently based in Devon UK.

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