Lag B'Omer Part 2: Chabad And the Bouncy Castles

The Lag B'Omer celebrations continued today with a day off school (but not off work for working parents which is problematic for parents of younger children) and public happenings and events around the country. We decided to join the local Chabad Parade from the park to a school playground where... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, what is Chabad? I mentioned them once before in this post but basically Chabad is an ultra-orthadox and international, Jewish organisation that promotes acts of loving-kindness and emphasises reaching out to the unaffiliated to include them in the community. You may have heard of them called Lubavitch, after the place where the movement started. I am not a member and I'm not even that religious - let alone ultra-anything. However, I do have great respect for the work that Chabad do.

In the park.

So we met in the park and found the drummers. All the children were given hats, flags and raffle tickets and we were off. We marched out of the park and down the street waving our flags and singing out loudly for the Messiah to come soon (that being one of the favourite songs) and about David being being the King of Israel. If you had told me three years ago that I would ever join such a spectacle I would have insisted emphatically, "never! Not in a million years!" But there I was dancing away in my silly hat and enjoying every moment. Amazing what motherhood does to you.

DD with her flag, raffle ticket round her wrist, and her water bottle (hot climate means never leave home without one).

En route.

At one point we stopped under a balcony and this woman came out and threw sweets down for the children. I don't know if it was planned or not but the kids thought it was magic.

Eventually (after about 5 minutes) we arrived at the school gates.

Imagine our excitement when we saw these in the playground.

And this.

And here's another one.

DD spent over an hour in the ship. "Hello Mummy! I'm on a ship!"

And almost an hour on the desert island.

They gave out free ice lollies to the children.

There were hot dogs as well but I think it's a shame to feed your child poison after such a wonderful day.

I tried to sit and listen to the raffle draw but DD took off her shoes and told me, "I going there to the ship." She was off before I could stop her so I had to follow. I gave our tickets to the woman sitting next to me - I hope she won.

It took repeated deals of '5 minutes' to get DD to leave. She ran home still on a high. A quick shower, supper, two short stories and she was asleep within seconds of me leaving the room. Aaaand relaaaax.