Happy Hanukkah, Everypony!

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends!

http://pixelkitties.deviantart.com/art/Hanukkah-Ponies-274390859

Now I need to explain to my non-Jewish friends what is going on in this picture.

During Hanukkah, children play a game with a dreidel (a four-sided spinning top, pronounced dray-del) for chocolate coins called gelt.  The rules of the game are as follows:

• Each player begins with an equal amount of gelt, usually 5 or 10 pieces.
• Each player puts one gelt into the center "pot" at the beginning of the game. 
• Each player also puts one gelt into the pot at the end of every player's turn.
• Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. What happens next depends on which side lands face-up:
• If נ‬ (nun) is facing up, the player does nothing. 
• If ג‬ (gimel) is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
• If ה‬ (hey) is facing up, the player gets half of the geltin the pot. If there are an odd number of gelt, they take the half the pot rounded up.
• If ש‬ (shin) is facing up, the player adds one gelt to the pot.
• When you run out of gelt, you're out of the game. 

Yes, it's basically kids gambling for chocolate. This explains why Pinkie Pie (ostensibly an adult pony) is playing; she loves all things sugary. Apparently she keeps winning the pot (probably due to her Pinkie Sense) and Rarity is irritated that her little sister is getting "taken". 

Don't worry, Sweetie Belle! I'm sure Pinkie will share when the game is done. 

Now, for you adults who don't feel like gambling for chocolate, how about a drinking game instead? Here are the rules for Drinking Dreidel (also known as “Drink & Drei” or “Fatal Dreidel” if you’re playing with tequila), written by Molly Tolsky

• If נ‎ (nun) is facing up, you do nothing. Sounds boring, but believe me, when the game gets rolling, you’ll be grateful for those precious nuns (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write on a Jewish website).
• • If ש‎ (shin) is facing up, you take a drink. In regular dreidel, shin means put one in. In this case, you’re putting one in… to your mouth.
• • If ה‎ (hey) is facing up, you choose somebody else to take a drink, specifically by saying, “Hey ___, take a drink.”
• • If ג‎ (gimel) is facing up, everybody takes a drink! But first you all must shout, “GIMEL!!!” and clink glasses. Don’t skip over that step — it’s important for overall morale.

Want to buy a dreidel? Amazon has them.