A few years ago, on a hunch, I bought some tickets to Pop-Up Magazine. I wasn't sure what exactly the show was going to be, but the ads for it reminded me of my teenage self on the adventure that was coffee and the New York Times Magazine. The MC opened the show by telling us that what we were about to see was not going to be recorded; it would not be made publicly available, and it was just for us. I shrugged it off, but by the end of the night I understood exactly what that meant. It was a lot like what happens around a holiday table during chag: time sequestered and captured only in the living memory of those who experience it.
That is to say, there are not a lot of pictures--even on the internet--of Jewish holiday tables. (In fact, I often find images I've shared in the past of our sukkah or my kids' Hebrew bookshelf floating around the internet or in local Jewish newspapers, which is pretty funny.) There aren't a lot of kitsch centerpieces, ideas for place settings, or suggestions for decor, at least not on the commercial level attained by, say, Valentine's Day. Pun foods, now that's something that we have disproportionately represented, especially on Rosh haShanah, but by and large, how we run our affairs is a family matter. I love that we don't take pictures on holidays; that we're freed from all of that. But, I do think that it makes it harder for us to come together as a community and get excited about the turning of the seasons. So these wine hangers are my small bid to add a little more presence to the upcoming holidays, so important to us, but still strikingly unknown in the broader culture here in the US.
About the printables
The printables are available as PDFs below, which you can print out on your regular black-and-white home printer. I printed mine on regular copy paper, because heavier paper looks nice but doesn't drape as well. The standard-weight paper is easier for kiddos to cut, too. But being grayscale, the PDFs shouldn't give you trouble if you'd like to try printing them on light cardstock or colored paper.
Print them off, set out some stickers and paint and markers (and, if you dare, glitter) and get your kids, or yourself, to work. To finish the bottles, I used burlap ribbon and a string of olive-looking leaves to wrap around the neck of the bottles.
My recommendation is to decorate the hangers before cutting them out, so your design goes all the way to the edges. Then, cut just inside the solid line and just inside the dashed line so that the outline won't be visible.
What year is it again?
In standard numerals, the Hebrew year that's beginning is 5780. (Yep, welcome to the eighties.) It's easy to calculate, if you take upcoming the Gregorian New Year, 2020, and add 60 to the 20 (=80), then tack that onto the century, 5700, which it'll be for a while. In Hebrew, the year is represented, in abbreviation, by the letters ת, ש, פ. Because the פ comes at the end, there is some ambiguity in how the year could be written and pronounced. I was giddy pleased to see that the Academy of the Hebrew Language agrees with my pet choice (Hebrew link), which is to write and say it תש"ף, tashaf. (The little quote mark denotes that it's an acronym; it's not pronounced.) However, I'm more often seeing תש"פ, tashap, in written form, though it's still said tashaf.
So, for the printable, I made both options. The modern typeface has the more common acronym, and the traditional typeface has the more correct pedantic choice. There is also a version that just says shanah tovah (in Hebrew, without the year), and a versatile one that says chag same'ach ("happy holiday") that you could use throughout the chaggim.
- Shanah Tovah 5780 Wine Bottle Hanger Printable
- Shanah Tovah Wine Bottle Hanger Printable
- Chag Same'ach Win Bottle Hanger Printable
Though it may be small compared to the raging Halloween section Target's been harboring since August, it's more our speed, isn't it? I hope you enjoy them. Shanah tovah!
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