Dovy Dreidel, Goldy Gelt and Shamash the Candle made their first public appearances this week atop a flatbed trailer, standing beside a 6-foot-high menorah made of plastic drainage pipes. They visited Jewish day schools, senior residences and the parking lot of the Mall in Columbia.

The whimsical characters and the menorah are part of Columbia's newest holiday fixture - the "Hanukkah Mobile." Driven around town by Rabbi Hillel Baron, the mobile was designed to entertain as well as educate residents about the eight-day Festival of Lights, which ends tomorrow.

"It was a big hit," said Baron, director of the Lubavitch Center for Jewish Education in Columbia. "Part of the mitzvah [commandment] is to publicize the miracle of Hanukkah and to deliver Hanukkah's message, which is to bring the light and joy of religious life and belief in God to all mankind, especially in this day when we are facing a lot of fear. Everyone needs to turn to their faith in God to shed light on what direction to go into. If we have faith, we can lead a happy life despite the challenges and bad out there."

Hanukkah celebrates the victory of a small band of Jews led by Judah Maccabee over the Syrian-Greeks, who sought to assimilate the Jews into Greek culture. After the defiled temple was cleansed and rededicated, the Maccabees found enough olive oil to light for only one day. Miraculously, the oil burned eight days - when a new supply was made.

"That was the true victory - we were able to resume our religious practices and affirm our faith in God," Baron said. "The Greeks tried to undermine our faith. But the culmination of the victory demonstrated adherence to God's commandment of lighting the temple menorah with pure oil."

Hanukkah traditions include lighting a menorah each night with olive oil or candles; eating foods cooked in oil such as latkes (potato pancakes); giving children Hanukkah gelt (money); and playing with a dreidel, a small top.

The mobile, which took a month of planning and design, includes a menorah filled with multicolored "candles" that Baron crafted from drainage pipes and spray-painted. The "flames" are glass soda bottles spray-painted yellow that Baron "lighted" by using a portable generator.

"I helped build the mobile," said Baron's 5-year-old son, Avramy. "The best thing is the menorah because it lights up."

Baron added a 3-foot-tall dreidel that blows artificial snow from its top, designed a Hanukkah character resembling a candle from a cardboard tube and created gelt by covering two huge round pieces of plywood and mattress stuffing with gold-colored cloth.

Working with several of his nine children, Baron also designed costumes of Judah Maccabee and Judah's father, the High Priest Matisyahu, which his sons wore on visits to schools and the elderly.

The mobile made its debut at the mall parking lot Saturday evening. "But it was very windy and cold, so we just got a lot of waves and 'Happy Hanukkahs,'" Baron said.

Baron also drove to other Columbia sites, including the Bet Yeladim Jewish preschool and kindergarten with about 20 pupils from Lubavitch's Gan Israel day school and Olameinu, an Orthodox girls high school based at Gan Israel. They sang Hanukkah songs, tested the schoolchildren about the holiday and handed out prizes of chocolate gelt and dreidels.

"The children thoroughly enjoyed it," said Barbara Frederick, associate director of Bet Yeladim. "The mobile is very imaginative, very festive. I was very much impressed with the hard work and enthusiasm that went with this. We never know what he will bring to us. This is another way to engage children in the Jewish holidays."

Each fall, Baron sets up a Sukkah Mobile, a tiny hut built atop a pickup truck to educate residents about the weeklong Sukkot holiday, which commemorates a period in which ancient Israelites lived in huts in the desert after their exodus from Egypt.

"He really does make the holiday come alive for the children," Frederick said. "His enthusiasm is contagious."

Baron also drove to Lorien Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Gan Israel youngsters danced and sang Hanukkah songs and distributed refreshments and gifts, while Olameinu pupils visited immobile residents in their rooms.

Later, Baron took hot latkes to the Owen Brown Place senior apartments. On Wednesday, he drove the mobile to Lubavitch's regional center in Potomac.

The mobile's final appearance this year will be at the Jewish camp fair and concert from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Oakland Mills High School. "It's a sight to see," Baron said.

Werner, a Gan Israel first-grader, agreed. -RD