Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated over a period of 8 days. It begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month called 'Kislev'(usually in December). It is a celebration of family, freedom and light. As Winter is the coldest and darkest time of the year, people celebrate the light and warmth of light in our homes, local communities and around the world. An importance is placed on music, food and ritual.
Families use the eight days of Hanukkah to spend time together. One of the main rituals of Hanukkah is saying blessings as you light special candles. In some families different members of the family, including the children, light their own menorah, as pictured below.
Ritual Objects
There are some important objects connected to Hanukkah, they include the menorah and the dreidel.
Menorah is a Hebrew word meaning 'Candelabrum'. This refers to the ceremonial lamp, which holds the Hanukkah candles. The nine branches represent the eight days of celebration, plus the ninth candle which is called the 'shamash', this is used to light the other candles.
A Dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, used in a game played during Hanukkah. It is the Jewish variant of a European 'teetotum', which was used for gambling. In History Hanukkah was one of the few times in the year when rabbis were allowed to play games of chance.
On each side of the Dreidel there is a different Hebrew letter, "nun", "gimel", "hey" and "shin".
NUN - take nothing - נ
GIMEL - take everything - ג
HEY - take half - ה
SHIN - put one in - ש
Since the rules are simple, the whole family can play together and often chocolates are used instead of money.
There is also the Jewish prayer shawl called a tallit. It is customarily made with white fabric with black stripes and one blue string.
Why Blue?
The blue color comes from a blue snail dye that is mentioned in the Torah(Jewish Holy Book). The color blue is also mentioned in other religious writings and therefore is an important color in Judaism.
Preparing for the Holiday
Before Hanukkah people prepare their menorah candles, and since many families have a separate menorah for each person, that could be over 40 candles! In some instances people can not use an open flame due to their situation, so they use an electric menorah, which have become widely available.
Each individual family decides how to celebrate the nights of Hanukkah. This could include family activities like singing, cooking or doing charity work. Families often exchange gifts, sometimes including charitable gifts. The sixth Hanukkah candle is translated as the 'candle of righteousness' this helps to remind people about poverty and to encourage them to make donations.
Music
There are a variety of traditional and contemporary songs that families enjoy singing as part of the Hanukkah celebrations. See some of the examples below.
I Have A Little Dreidel - is a modern children's song
Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages) - is usually sang when lighting the candles each night.
Light One Candle - written by Peter Yarrow
The Latke Song - written by Debbie Friedman
FOOD
Latkes and Sufganiyot are food cooked in oil and customarily eaten during Hanukkah. In Israel there are shops that specialize in creating evermore delicious and creative Sufganiyot. Other foods that are popular include Bimuelos which are fried dough puffs, Sfenj which is a type of North African yeast donut and Keftes de prasas which is a fried leek patty, yummy!
As you can see everything is cooked in oil. This is a symbol to represent the legend of the jar of oil that lasted eight days.
Hanukkah this year will be celebrated from Sunday the 18th of December to Monday the 26th of December!
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