A dreidl (in Yiddish דרידל, Hebrew סביבון, sevivon) is a duck-like toy that children play with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. A Hebrew letter is printed on each of its four walls. These letters are an acronym for the Hebrew word נש גדול היה שם (Nes Gadol Haja Sham), which translates to "a great miracle happened there."
Game
After the Chanukah candles are lit, a dreidel game is usually played in many households. Each player starts with 10 or 15 coins (real or chocolate), nuts, raisins, candies and places one candy in a bowl. The first player spins the dreidel and, depending on what they land, either wins or puts some of their sweets in the bowl. The key based on the Yiddish version of this game is as follows:
Nún - ništ - "nothing" - nothing happens and another player plays
Gímel - gants - "all" - the player won the contents of the entire bowl
Hey - halb - "half" - the player got half of the sweets in the bowl (if there is an odd number of sweets in the bowl, it is rounded up)
Šin - štel ajn - "to put" - the player puts one candy in the bowl
Other versions of the game differ:
Nún - nim - "takes" - the player gets one candy from the bowl
Gímel - gib - "gives" - the player puts one candy in the bowl
Hey - halb - "half" - the player gets half of the sweets in the bowl (if there is an odd number of sweets in the bowl, it is rounded up)
Šin - štil - "calm" - nothing happens and another player plays
The game ends when one player wins everything.
