This is an
Israeli Chanukah song for young children. The lyrics are kind of silly, but I still like it better than the
American Dreidel song that I hate with a passion.
Lyrics (Hebrew):
sevivon, sov sov sov,
chanukah hu chag tov,
chanukah hu chag tov,
sevivon, sov sov sov.
sovna sov, ko va cho,
nes gadol haya po.
sovna sov, ko va cho,
nes gadol haya po.
Lyrics (Translation):
Spin, dreidle, spin
Chanukah is a happy holiday.
Chanukah is a happy holiday,
Spin, dreidle, spin.
Spin to and fro.
A great miracle happened here.
Spin to and fro.
A great miracle happened here.
So, yes, this song is silly. But an interesting thing about it is that the four letters on the dreidel (
gimmel,
hey,
nun,
pey) stand for "
nes gadol haya po", which means "a great
miracle happened here". On non-Israeli dreidels, the
pey is replaced with a
shin, which stands for "
sham", which means "there", as in "a great miracle happened there".