Some Middle Eastern cities shone more than 50% brighter during Ramadan. Find out how ancient religious celebrations led to traditions of holiday glare.

NASA scientists and associates used a sophisticated computer algorithm to compare man-made lights during holidays to man-made lights at other times of the year.

RELATED: NASA watches freshwater sea vanish

They compensated for clouds, dust and other weather phenomena which might have impacted the results. They also ignored increases in brightness from areas with snow cover because snow  reflects and increases the amount of manmade illumination which escapes into space.

The scientists were surprised that holiday lights are visible from space.

Hanukkah Holiday Light

The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah is sometimes called the festival of lights. It commemorates a Maccabee victory and a miracle of efficient lighting that took place in 165 BCE. A nine-branched Hanukkah menorah lamp is part of this traditional celebration. The menorah’s candles are lit in order to represent the miraculous extra days of light.

RELATED: NASA sees Cairo’s black cloud on camera

Electric menorahs are sometimes used for display purposes and to let others know about the Jewish faith, but under most circumstances, this mitzvah requires a true menorah which burns wax or oil as the original temple menorah would have.

So, with the exception of the green laser menorah projected onto a landfill in Ariel Sharon park near Tel Aviv, typical Hanukkah celebrations aren’t bright enough to be seen from space.

Christmas Holiday Light

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in Bethlehem. To Christians, Jesus Christ is the messiah and the light of the world. But there is only a tenuous connection between core Christian beliefs and the traditional illuminated Christmas tree.

The ancient pagan practice of decorating an evergreen tree was adopted by devout Christians in Germany. Marriage and other family connections brought this tradition to Great Britain around the year 1800 and spread further when Queen Victoria married her German cousin. At the time, these Christmas trees were decorated with ornaments and occasionally with lit candles.

In December 1882, Edward H. Johnson demonstrated the first electric Christmas tree lights. This was only three years after his associate Thomas Edison demonstrated the first practical incandescent light bulb. These lights were seen as a publicity stunt of the fledgling Edison electric company and not immediately welcomed as a less flammable alternative to candles. Businesses began using them around the year 1900 but they were too expensive for average households until about 1930.

Electric Christmas lights went through several technology and style changes over the next few decades. This included compact fluorescent Christmas lights introduced in the 1940s, high voltage Christmas lights, low voltage “fairy light” incandescents and the recent introduction of red, yellow, green, blue, ultraviolet and finally white LEDs.

Ramadan Holiday Light

These decorative lights eventually spread beyond the western world and beyond the Christian holiday. Some neighborhoods hold competitions for the brightest, blinkiest, most eye-watering holiday light display. So it should surprise no one that lights such as these are seen from space:

The lights of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan can also be seen from space. In Saudi Arabia, outdoor lights were twice as bright during Ramadan than they are at other times of year.  Some of this may be caused by decorative lights, and the fact that more people are outside after sunset when each daytime fast ends.

Photographs by NASA some rights reserved

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Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights which lasts for eight days. The holiday commemorates the victory of the Jewish people against Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 165 B.C, and the restoration of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which had been ransacked and desecrated.

The light in the Temple, which was to burn through every night, had been put out. The sealed vessels of consecrated olive oil for the light had been opened and defiled. But one unbroken vessel of pure olive oil,  enough to burn for only one day, was discovered among the wreckage. It miraculously burned for eight days, until a new supply of oil was pressed.

So the tradition of eating fried foods on Hanukkah began, which Jews all over the world gladly observe. Traditional savory pancakes like potato latkehs are a familiar treat. Sweet sufganiyot donuts appear in all the markets and bakeries. But we overlook the significance of the fried goodies. It’s really all about the olive oil. So we offer this healthy, herby, version of zucchini fritters, from the wonderful Delights From The Garden of Eden cookbook, by Nawal Nasrallah (author of Dates).

And while the author’s intention wasn’t to celebrate Hanukkah, there is another traditional Hanukkah food in this recipe: cheese.

Herbed Zucchini Fritters

Adapted from Delights From The Garden of Eden, by Nawal Nasrallah

Yield: 12 pancakes

Ingredients:

3 medium zucchini – about 1-1/2 lb. or 675 grams – grated

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped scallions or onions

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped

1/4 cup parsely, chopped

1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

4 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon chili pepper (optional)

Olive oil for shallow frying

Toss zucchini with salt in a colander. Set a plate directly on top and weight it down with a heavy pot or a bowl filled with water. Let zucchini drain for 30 minutes. Press out excess moisture.

Put zucchini in a big bowl and add the remaining ingredients except the oil, mixing well.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a medium skillet. Drop 2 tablespoons of mixture into skillet. Flatten the pancakes with a spatula. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden.

Transfer to a plate and keep warm in a pre-heated oven. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Happy Festival of Lights, and happy feasting!

More scrumptious things to cook for Hanukkah:

• Home-Made Applesauce For Your Latkehs
• Hanukkah Chocolate Coins Recipe
• Apple-Potato Pancakes

Photo of zucchini fritters via Shutterstock.

The post Healthy Herbed Zucchini Fritters For Hanukkah: RECIPE appeared first on Green Prophet.

Jewish American ex patriots living in Israel and abroad will have a special treat this year as the American secular holiday of Thanksgiving and the beautiful Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, will occur together in unique calendar coincidence that will not happen again for more than 77,000 years.

Whether families combine traditional Thanksgiving roast turkey and cranberry sauce with Hanukkah latkes (potato pancakes) with apple sauce will be at each family’s discretion. Since some families celebrating the joint events are vegetarian, the traditional Thanksgiving meal can have meaning to vegetarians and vegans too.

An article published in the Toronto Star, America’s friendly Canadian neighbor to the north, mentioned that this super rare and probably once only joint event on November 28 will not occur again until the secular year 79,034.

Hanukkah, which begins each year on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev, is a eight day festival on which candles are lit each night to commemorate the miracle victory of the Jewish Maccabees over the Greek Seleucids in 164 BCE.

The festival also tells  how a tiny amount of holy oil found in the rededicated Temple in Jerusalem burned continuously for eight days. This is why fried foods like the latkeh potato pancakes and jelly donuts known as “suvganiot” are eaten, to commemorate this oil.

As a result of the two holidays occurring together, Jews in both Israel and the USA have given the “hybrid” holiday a special name: Thanksgivukkah. While more excitement of the two concurring holidays appears to be more prominent in the USA, a number of Israel’s approximate population of 185,000 expat Americans and descendants will celebrate the joint holiday too.

From a green or environmental standpoint, whether expat families in Israel choose to order a turkey this year could depend a lot on how they may have been effected by the recent Kolbotek consumer watch dog program that revealed how turkeys and other poultry have been seriously abused prior to being slaughtered at one of Israel’s largest poultry slaughterhouses, Solgevick.

Another environmental issue also stems from whether lighting so many Hanukkah candles contributes to Climate change and global warming.

Expat vegetarians and vegans who refrain from eating meat and other animal products will still have plenty of food items to enjoy, including the traditional Hanukkah latkes.

This also holds true for traditional Thanksgiving foods like squashes and quiches, potato and other vegetable dishes. Even traditional pumpkin pie, made from a local squash cousin of the American pumpkin, known in Israel as “d’laat” will grace many tables. The traditional Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, if one finds it in time, is also great with Hanukkah latkes as well.

As to what the world will like in 79,043, we might all take heed from the 1969 pop hit; In the Year 2525 by the pop rock duo Zager and Evans

More on Hanukkah, Thanksgiving and similar harvest festivals celebrated in Israel:

Applesauce for Hanukkah Recipe

Climate Change and Hanukkah – A Connection?

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Meal Can Have Meaning in the Middle East

Sukkot, The Jewish Environment Holiday

The post Thanksgiving and Hanukkah Together This Year – But Will They be Greener? appeared first on Green Prophet.

In honor of the last day of Hannukah, the Yesh Meain permaculture farm will be hosting an all-day permaculture celebration.

Links are often found between Jewish holidays and the environment, and environmentally-minded organizations in Israel try to find eco-friendly ways to celebrate them.  We’ve seen these eco Jewish celebrations center around Sukkot, a holiday that is spent outdoors anyway.  But this year we have learned of a permaculture party for Hannukah – a holiday praised by Jewish environmentalists for its lesson on energy efficiency.  The party will take place at the Yesh Meain permaculture farm (the same place that sustainable designer Inbal Weisman frequents in order to collect materials for her upcycled fabric owls) on the last night of Hannukah.

The celebrations will include: swapping/sharing of seeds (and whatever else comes to mind), tours and workshops for children, a general assembly of the members of the Israeli Permaculture Organization, and a communal vegan/vegetarian feast.

Starting at 10am on Wednesday December 28th and continuing until 11:30pm, this day-long event will begin with mingling and workshops.  Intended for kids of all ages, the workshops will include solar oven tutorials, upcycling crafts, instruction on the use of micro organisms for various ecological systems, and more.

The events will be scattered among the different ecologically-constructed structures at Yesh Meain, including their yurt and mud houses.

Started in 2007 by graduates of the Permaculture Design Course at the Center for Creative Ecology on Kibbutz Lotan, Yesh Meain “aims to create a center for environmental and social awareness.  [They] aspire to encourage key changes in the consuming behavior, the use of resources and the perception of abundance within the Israeli society.”

For more information about the Permaculture Hannukah gathering, visit the event’s Facebook page or website.

Read more about eco-Hannukah:
8 Tips For Energy Efficiency “Miracle” This Hannukah [SLIDESHOW]
Miraculously Sustainable and Upcycled Hannukah Menorah Designs
Climate Change and Hanukah – A Connection?

The post Permaculture Hannukah Party at Yesh Meain Ecological Farm appeared first on Green Prophet.

A new twist on Hannuka’s potato latkehs: The kids look forward to the same latkehs year after year, but adults sometimes want something a little different.  Surfing the Net for an alternative recipe, this recipe from The New York Times caught my eye. It’s as easy to make as the traditional recipe, but it’s just different enough to make those traditional potato fritters interesting again.

For a Middle-Eastern taste twist, forgo the expensive imported maple syrup and use native Silan date syrup. Here’s a riveting little story about how sheep keep the weeds down in a Jericho date farm.

Apple-Potato Latkes With Cinnamon Sour Cream

Ingredients:

Coarsely grate the apples, potato and onion. Put the mixture in a clean dish towel and squeeze to wring out as much liquid as possible. For the crispiest pancakes, you want the least moisture.

Working quickly, put the mixture in a large bowl, add the flour, eggs, salt, baking powder and pepper, and mix until the flour is absorbed.

In a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat, pour in about 1/4 inch of oil. Once the oil is hot (a drop of batter placed in the pan should sizzle), drop heaping tablespoons of batter into the pan, cooking 3 to 4 latkes at a time. Use a spatula to flatten the scoops into disks.

When the edges of the latkes are brown and crispy, 2 to 3 minutes, flip them. Cook until the second side is deeply browned, another 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer the latkes to a plate lined with recycled, crumpled newspaper sheets to drain. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve with dollops of the cinnamon sour cream on top.

Yield: about 1 1/2 dozen latkes. Enjoy!

More recipes for the Festival of Lights from Green Prophet:

• Conventional potato latkehs
• Sufganyot: jelly donuts
• Baked Sufganyot

Photo by Andrew Scrivani via the New York Times

The post Apple-Potato Latkes for Hannukah, with cinnamon cream RECIPE appeared first on Green Prophet.

Sustainable designer Aya Tager will teach upcycling workshops this month so that the lighting miracle of Hannukah can continue beyond the holiday’s 8 days.

The Jewish holiday of Hannukah celebrates the miracle of a single day’s supply of oil lasting for eight days of lighting, and is beloved by environmentalists who appreciate the energy efficiency aspect of the holiday.  Sustainable designers have taken the energy efficiency aspect of Hannukah and integrated it into eco-friendly and upcycled Hannukah menorah designs.  While beautiful and made using materials that would otherwise end up in landfills, those upcycled Hannukah menorahs are only used once a year.  During this year’s Jewish festival of lights, sustainable designer Aya Tager will teach workshops on how to upcycle glass jars into lanterns that can be used all year long.

Whereas Hannukah served as the inspiration for Tager to make upcycled lanterns, she said that she specifically chose to use glass jars because “glass can be recycled but the process requires high energy consumption.”

“My first recommendation,” Tager continues, “is to re-use glass jars (for example when making a home made jam) and since most of us have several used jars the next recommendation is to upcycle them from ‘just’ a package into a lovely object we can use again and again.”

Tager’s workshops are intended “to teach kids and adults how to turn objects they think are of no use anymore into useful, personalized and great looking items without spending lots of money or using extra energy.”

Her two upcycling workshops were organized in collaboration with Tel Aviv’s Achoti Fair Trade shop and Bait Banamal in the Tel Aviv port, and will take place on the afternoons of December 25th and 28th.

For more information about the workshops and to register (registration required) call the Achoti fair trade shop at 077-4011271.

:: Aya Kaya Sustainable Design

Read more about Hannukah:
Miraculously Sustainable and Upcycled Hannukah Menorah Designs
Eco Rabbi – Hanukkah and the Importance of Spreading the “Green” Message
Climate Change and Hanukah – A Connection?

Image via: aussiegall

The post Hannukah Workshop To Teach the Miracle of Upcycled Lighting appeared first on Green Prophet.

Can’t find your old Hannukah menorah?  Israeli designers come up with clever alternatives.

With the Jewish Hannukah holiday only a few weeks away, many Jews in the Middle East and elsewhere are anxiously waiting to eat sufganiot (jelly doughnuts) and searching their closets and cupboards for their Hannukah menorahs.  In case they can’t be found, here is a roundup of a few upcycled and sustainable menorahs made by Israeli designers (such as Gad Charny’s clothespin menorah, seen above).

Charny used clothespins to create this menorah, and made a few different versions.  (If you’re feeling crafty, you could try making your own either out of clothespins or other readily available materials that you have lying around at home.)

Repurposing multiple solitary candlesticks that had lost their mates, the menorah above made by Reddish Studio renders the candlesticks functional as part of an ensemble again.  While this version only has 7 candlesticks, it could be easily expanded and adapted to suit the requirements of a Hannukah menorah.

If energy efficiency is what you look for in a menorah, you might consider Cygalle Shapiro’s tomato-powered LED lamp.  It may be difficult to make on your own or obtain, but it’s the most organic (and delicious) lamp design that we’ve seen.

If you like your menorahs to have a less finished look, we suggest Godspeed’s Trash Candleholder, a set of candlesticks made from trashed and reclaimed wood.

The candlesticks to the left are currently only suited for two candles, but you could either request that Godspeed make you another one (they make all their items by hand in a single hour or less) or attempt to make a similar one yourself from scraps at home.

Menorahs can be made creatively and sustainably in unlimited ways.  Below, another version of Gad Charny’s clothespin menorah sheds some more light on the matter.

More on Hannukah:

The ultimate latke recipe
Baked Sufganyot For a Healthier Hannukah
Climate Change and Hanukah – A Connection?

The post Miraculously Sustainable and Upcycled Hannukah Menorah Designs appeared first on Green Prophet.

Okay, this week’s parashah is a no-brainer. Seriously, how can an Eco-Rabbi NOT talk about Parshat Miketz? The parashah which contains the solution for dealing with famine…

Parshat Miketz opens with Pharaoh, King of Egypt, receiving a dream in which he sees 7 fat, healthy cows consumed by 7 weak and sickly cows. Then Pharoah sees 7 fat, healthy bundles of grain consumed by 7 weak and sickly bundles.

After consulting with every wise man around he finds Joseph, who had been thrown in jail. While in jail Joseph helped, correctly, interpret the dreams of 2 cellmates. One of them ended back in Pharaoh’s court – and it was he who recommended Joseph to Pharoah.

Joseph explains that there will be 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine. He recommends that if Pharaoh is wise, he will save during the years of plenty for the following years of famine. Pharaoh immediately raises Joseph up to be his top advisor and Egypt is saved.

The advice of Joseph in Parshat Miketz is wise, even today. We have been blessed with a storeroom full of fuels – natural gasses, coal and oil. But at the rate at which are burning them, it will be all be gone, perhaps even within our own lifetimes.

Additionally, our current infrastructure for utilities is not sustainable. With too many years of drought we will be without water, even though there are few countries in the world who do not border on an ocean. Not to mention all the waste we dispose of which could be reused or recycled. Our Sun is an unlimited source of energy, if we only invest in harvesting it.

The problem is that if we continue consuming at this rate we will be left without. On an individual basis, Joseph’s advice is wise. If we all can conserve, we will last longer before we use up our resources.

On a larger scale, Joseph’s advice is crucial. Governments need to be taking advantage of this time-period of plenty for developing alternative solutions to their country’s needs.

Israel is a country that develops some of the most advanced environmental technologies but those individual companies cannot implement them here because the government is not providing the financial support. Support for programs that would ultimately be beneficial to her.

Let’s remember with this Hanukkah the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. And let us work towards a sustainable future of plenty.

Image Credit: Ted and Jen

The post Eco Rabbi – Parshat Miketz – Solutions for Famine appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Festival of Lights. Traditional songs, spinning tops and chocolate coins, candles in the menorah flickering while we wait for the first platter of hot latkehs, our home-made Hanukkah treat. Latkehs! What is it with latkehs? They’re brown, they’re fried, they’re potatoey and oniony and when you fry them, you have to open all the windows. And you can’t resist raising the calorie count even more with toppings of sour cream and applesauce.

Well, they are delicious. Plump and tender on the inside, crisp at the edges. The subtle contrast of sour cream and sweet applesauce on top of robust potato and onion…oy. A hot latkeh is like mother love. We’ll go on a diet tomorrow.

Traditional Potato Pancakes (Latkehs) Recipe

Yield: 25-30 latkehs, made in the food processor or hand-grated

6 large potatoes: 1.6 kg.
4 large onions
6 eggs
1 cup flour and 1 Tblsp. baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
Oil for shallow frying

1. Cut the potatoes into chunks that will fit into the tube of your food processor. Or hand-grate them. You don’t have to peel the potatoes, just scrub them well and go over them with a knife to remove anything undesirable.

2. In food processor: grate the potatoes with the fine-grating disk.

3. Dump the grated mass into a colander and rinse briefly to avoid discoloration. Allow to drain while everything else is being prepared.

4. Rinse the food processor; fit the knife in.

5. Peel and quarter the onions; puree them in the food processor. Or grate them. (Recommended: wear safety goggles.)

6. Add the eggs to the pureed onions; blend them for a few seconds.

7. Add the salt, pepper, flour, and baking powder to the contents of the food processor. Whirl till all is smooth. Or Beat the dry ingredients into the onion/egg mixture.

8. Start heating the oil in the frying pan; about 2 tablespoons. It needs to be renewed once in a while.

9. Put the grated potatoes in a big bowl and mix the floury batter into that. The mixture will get watery as the potatoes start releasing juice on contact with the salt.

10. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, turn out little hills of raw latkeh batter into the hot oil. This works better than using cooking spoons. Flatten out the tops a little. Fry till the first side is brown; gently flip over with a spatula and fry till the other side is brown too. Taste the first one or two to determine what color the latkehs have to be when they’re done.

Drain on paper towels. Serve hot.

Bon appetit! If you love these, try adding apples to the next batch. See our recipe for apple potato latkes here.

More mouth-watering recipes:

Jelly doughnut sufganiyot recipe
Holiday Recipes, Sukkot Edition: Make Your Own Riccotta
What To Do With All That Whey – Make Biscuits!
Sandor “Sandorkraut” Katz’s Wild Fermentation, a Review

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