Holiday Tales, pt. 3: Happy Hanukkah

The Festival of Lights may be over, but the spirit of the holiday lives on. This week, Rebecca Segal, a newly-participating member of the storytelling phenomenon Ex-Fabula, shares the story of how she recreated her family’s beloved Hanukkah traditions while she was 4,000 away from home.

Two years ago, Rebecca was living and working as a teaching assistant in Valence, France, and come the holidays, she found herself a bit homesick and wishing she could celebrate Hanukkah with her family. So she did the next best thing : invited some friends over — other expats from all over the world– spent all day making latkes (without causing any major fires) and created a makeshift menorah out of tea lights.

Hilarity ensued, and Rebecca realized that even though she was far from home, she was indeed surrounded by family.

Listen now:

(Windows Media Player)

(Quicktime)

Enjoy the holiday cheer every week by subscribing to Backstage with Mark Metcalf through iTunes. This week’s music graciously provided by Klezmerica.