Leave it to our kosher scouts at the local Albertsons to enliven the upcoming Festival of Lights with the perfect latke chaser. The nutty flavor of nine different hops and nine different malts in He’Brew’s ninth anniversary beer, Jewbelation 5766, is touted as the perfect complement to a warm potato pancake.
“In 5766,” the current year on the Jewish calendar, the New York-based Shmaltz Brewing Company proclaims that “the high holidays will soar a little higher” with this limited edition brew.
Our own product review board at the Reporter did some fact-checking and concluded that the number nine is indeed rather magical. That’s about how many sips of this dark, smooth 9 percent-alcohol-by-volume beer it takes to be reduced to three sheets to the wind.
He’Brew, “The Chosen Beer,” is selling Jewbelation 5766 through the Hanukkah season in 22-oz. bottles. Just make sure you’ve got at least a couple latkes in your stomach before embracing the number nine.
Black Nativity
A couple of young Islanders are raising the roof for Santa to land on, belting out the gospel in the Intiman Theatre’s annual “Black Nativity” production.
Jenna Wong Caluza, a senior at Mercer Island High School, and Kelsey Schergen, a seventh-grader at Islander Middle School, sing regularly with the Total Experience Gospel Choir. Choir director and “Gospel Queen of Seattle” Patrinell Wright, who leads the singers in the play, encouraged the girls to join the cast.
“I really like the music this year,” said Caluza, who performed in last year’s Nativity as well. “We’re singing a lot of old songs that are very emotional. It’s a history lesson in music.”
The play is a cultural smorgasbord, featuring the poetry of Langston Hughes, lively modern dance and an on-stage band.
“Gospel is so uplifting,” said Schergen, who is the cast’s youngest member. Anyone who lands their sleigh on the roof of Intiman through Dec. 26 will have to agree.
Keeping the faith
Do you ever feel like the Christmas season builds and builds into an explosive parade of Scotch tape and flying paper on Dec. 25, only to leave you feeling rather crumpled once it’s all over?
Pastor Greg Asimakoupoulos has remedied that hangover in his family by joining the “parade of kings,” the journey of the three Magi to Bethlehem, where they are thought to have arrived on Jan. 6, the Feast of Epiphany. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, three miniature king figures set out on a route from Asimakoupoulos’ family room. They trek for about five weeks along the hallway baseboard to Bethlehem (labeled on some maps as the “living room”).
“Faith is a journey,” said Asimakoupoulos, pastor at Mercer Island Covenant Church. “We get there a little at a time.”
The procession concludes with a special family dinner on Jan. 6, the Day of the Kings, observed by many Christians around the world. Small presents are placed inside gold crowns arranged on the table to symbolize the gifts the three wise men brought the baby Jesus. The traditional meal for the Day of the Kings at the pastor’s house is Chinese take-out, since the Magi arrived from the East.
Asimakoupoulos said that, as it became a yearly ritual, the parade went well beyond just extending the enjoyment of the holidays. “Tradition,” he said, “is the glue that holds our family together.”
