I saw a painting from 18th century Mexico at the L.A. County Museum in which a native-looking husband and wife are playing with a spinner that looks like a Dreidel. There are some nuts lying around; the husband is holding a nut. I asked the curator of the exhibit about this and she said that the spinner was not a Dreidel, that the couple was playing a game (I don’t know its name) played in 18th century Spain and Mexico.
I wonder if this game, whatever its called, is a precursor of the Dreidel game; more generally I’m interested in the history of the Dreidel.
The following explanation is very likely accurate and I think it explains what you saw in the museum. I’ll admit that I never learned about Dreidel history in Rabbinical College, as it is not a crucial element of Jewish Tradition. There are no real Torah observances regarding Dreidels other than thinking that G-d loves us and does for us miracles as the result of contemplating the meaning of the four letters that are inscribed on the Dreidel.
Dreidel is the German word for “top,” and the popular spinning toy game may have roots in a German gambling game. The four-sided Dreidle features four Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimmel, Hay and Shin. These letters stand for the words “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” or “A great miracle happened there.” (In Israel, the fourth letter is Pay, which stands for “Po,” or “here.”)