Why are the traditional colors of Hanukkah blue and silver?
I searched everywhere, all people seem to say that this is because of the Israeli flag, but that makes no sense - the flag is white and the colors were always blue and silver. In addition, Hanukkah blue is a shade of blue, while the flag is only a certain shade of blue.
Also, Passover and Rosh Hasshanah are not blue and white, or blue and silver.
Could someone please tell me without returning to the event flag?
These "traditional" colors have not been around very long. But think about it once had preempted Christmas red and green (and gold), what colors are left?
In the 20th century, candles were manufactured Hanukkah every orange. When the screen bezel electric hanukkiah became popular in the Jewish neighborhoods of New York in the 1950s, all the light bulbs used in them were orange. My family may have had a first on our block! But in a few years we could stand on a street corner in Brooklyn and to locate Jewish families up and down the street to the orange glow reflected hanukkiot power.So I think that if there * was * a "traditional Hanukkah-color, 50 years ago, it was orange!
However, the Jewish people have always identified with the blue sky. It is the distinctive color of t'helet the mollusk dye that has been commanded by God to use to build fringes (Tzitzit) on our clothes. That is why the color has been chosen for the Israeli flag.
I think the proliferation of blue and silver as a Hanukkah theme is now a matter of merchandising and marketing - I suspect that the marketing strategy is if a decorated red and green will sell at Christmas, then do the even in blue with a menorah on it and sell it for Hanukkah. The money is just to make it more "winter". You do not see that fact for other Jewish holidays, because they are not close to Christmas, so they do not receive the same barrage of marketing. As the public secular-Christian culture is concerned, the Hanukkah celebration is the only Jewish family, they seem to know.
In the 20th century, candles were manufactured Hanukkah every orange. When the screen bezel electric hanukkiah became popular in the Jewish neighborhoods of New York in the 1950s, all the light bulbs used in them were orange. My family may have had a first on our block! But in a few years we could stand on a street corner in Brooklyn and to locate Jewish families up and down the street to the orange glow reflected hanukkiot power.So I think that if there * was * a "traditional Hanukkah-color, 50 years ago, it was orange!
However, the Jewish people have always identified with the blue sky. It is the distinctive color of t'helet the mollusk dye that has been commanded by God to use to build fringes (Tzitzit) on our clothes. That is why the color has been chosen for the Israeli flag.
I think the proliferation of blue and silver as a Hanukkah theme is now a matter of merchandising and marketing - I suspect that the marketing strategy is if a decorated red and green will sell at Christmas, then do the even in blue with a menorah on it and sell it for Hanukkah. The money is just to make it more "winter". You do not see that fact for other Jewish holidays, because they are not close to Christmas, so they do not receive the same barrage of marketing. As the public secular-Christian culture is concerned, the Hanukkah celebration is the only Jewish family, they seem to know.
My parents bought my toddler a kid's tablet as a 
