Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Chinese Hava Nagila at the Hong Kong Spring Lantern Festival

The most widely celebrated festival in China as well as Hong Kong, the Spring Lantern Festival is on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. The festival is also known as the Yuan Xiao Festival, because of the popular Rice Ball that is eaten during the festival. 

The event is marked by lighting the iconic Chinese Red Lanterns and this year by the singing of Hava Nagila in Chinese.

This year's festival for the Year of the Ox was celebrated in February. Among the many performances was a Chinese version of Hava Nagila by the Yang Ming Cantonese Opera featuring Hong Kong Red Actress Liu Huiming as lead singer.

Enjoy!

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Chinese People Try Jewish Food for the First Time

Jewish YouTube blogger Xiaoma brought a group of his Chinese friends to NYC’s famous 2nd Avenue Deli to try authentic, traditional Eastern European Ashkenazic Jewish Food for the first time!

They ordered all the classics, including gefilte fish, chopped liver, pickles (full-sour and half-sour), sauerkraut, cholent, matzoh ball soup, blintzes, knishes, potato kugel, and of course pastrami sandwiches. Some of the items they loved, others…not so much!!!

Xiaoma is an American who's fascinated with international foods and cultures. Until the age of 18 he grew up speaking exclusively English, and then he got the chance to learn Mandarin and live in Beijing for a year where he fell in love with Chinese food, language, and culture. 

Enjoy this Chinese journey to the land of the Jewish deli.

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

YidLife Crisis With an Expanded Version of the Chinese Yiddish Waiter Joke

We're sorry that Chanukah is only eight days long. We wish that the oil had lasted a few more days, not because we need more latkes or sufganiot (jelly donuts). 

A longer holiday would have let us post more Chanukah music videos and related jokes and skits. We received lots more this year and we will put the best of them in our video safe to post next year.

Last year we also banked some videos for future use. Today, on the last day of Chanukah, we're sharing just one of the funniest that we didn't get around to last year. It's a funny skit by YidLife Crisis, the comedy vehicle of Jamie Elman and Eli Batalion, in which they converse in Yiddish (with more or less accurate English subtitles - and the less accurate the funnier) in a Chinese restaurant in Montreal.

The punch line will be familiar, because it also occurred in a video that we posted on Thursday, But this skit goes farther, with funny comments on the phenomenon of Jews in Chinese restaurants on Christmas day, and the all-too-common experience of encountering rude and noisy fellow diners.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

A Chanukah Joke - The Yiddish Speaking Chinese Waiter

The scene: a kosher restaurant. Two Yiddish-speaking diners are about to order when the Chinese waiter addresses them in Yiddish. 

They are confused, and ask the owner how he found a waiter who can speak Yiddish so well.

The answer is a classic punch line. Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.