Hello! Intern Ashley here! I recently got the opportunity to work a Bat Mitzvah! It was such a fun experience and celebration.
Bat mitzvah is Hebrew for “daughter of commandment.” When a Jewish girl turns 13, she has all the rights and obligations of a Jewish adult, including the commandments of the Torah. From that date, she takes her place in the Jewish community. There are many Mitzvah traditions, but I decided to do research on three.
The first tradition is lighting Shabbat candles. Jewish women and girls have been lighting candles to
welcome the sabbath for thousands of years. When doing this they are continuing a chain that began with matriarch Sarah. A special light shines on Shabbat, one that allows Jewish women to rise above their routine and connect to something much higher.
The second tradition is separating a piece of dough – called “challah” – when baking bread. A tiny dough is made that has the amount of flour in it for it to have the biblical obligation of separating a piece off for the Kohen. The piece is then taken, wrapped in foil and burned.
The third tradition is dedicating an hour or two to helping others on the actual day of the Bat Mitzvah such as visiting a nursing home or volunteering at a soup kitchen. Doing this makes the day more meaningful.
Although the KYAE team was not present for the day of traditions, we did assist in throwing the party! It was a larger party with about 120 guests. It was filled with fun music, dancing and food to celebrate “Hollywood” aka our guest of honor for the night. I got the opportunity to experience things I had not before, such as the hora. The hora is a type of folk dance that forms a ring. Traditionally the guest of honor and their family are lifted in chairs and danced around in the center of the ring. 
We have several fun food stations throughout the ballroom followed by late night snacks and coke floats
provided by Savory Street. Lots of desserts filled the sweets table along with candy and snack mix bar too! It truly felt as though we had concession stands throughout the room between activities and awesome music provided by Steel Impressions. There was photo booth for people to walk the red carpet and get their photo taken. We played several games throughout the evening and danced to every participation song you can think of. The decorations were a mix of some Sarah’s grandmother had made for one of the earlier events in the week, professional flowers and centerpieces by Design North and KYAE cleared their inventory out too! The Hilton Garden Inn on 68 provided the perfect size space to hold this affair and we can’t wait to rock the next with them! The staff was easy to work with and made set up and clean up a breeze.
It was a very successful event, and I hope to be able to experience other cultures and traditions in the future as I continue in the event industry.
