The spinning top game has its origins in antiquity. When the Greek armies of King Antiochus controlled the Holy Land, Jews had to hide in caves in order to learn Torah. Legend has it that when the teacher would hear the Greek soldiers approaching, he would instruct the children to hide their torah scrolls and take out their dreidels instead.
The toy goes by many names, most commonly dreidel (Yiddish) or sevivon (Hebrew), both meaning "to turn". The dreidel has has four sides: נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hey), ש (Shin), and is usually played with coins, jelly beans, chips, or gelt (chocolate coins). Collectively, these letters are interpreted as, "a great miracle happened there". The miracle, in this instance, is Hanukkah! In Israel, the fourth side of most dreidels is inscribed with the letter פ (Pei), rendering the acronym — "A great miracle happened here". This year, the Miracle will be the once in a lifetime overlap of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving.