What Is Chanukah?
Chanukkah (/ˈhɑːnəkə/; Hebrew:, Modern: Ḥanukkáh, Tiberian: Ḥanukkāh; usually spelled, pronounced [χanuˈka] in Modern Hebrew, [ˈχanukə] or [ˈχanikə]in Yiddish; a transliteration also romanized as Chanukah, Ḥanukah, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Hanuka)is a Jewish festival commemorating the recoveryof Jerusalem and subsequent rededicationof the Second Temple at the beginningof the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE. It is also known as the Festival of Lights (Hebrew: ḥag ha’urim).
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.
The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, called a menorah (or hanukkiah). One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shamash (Hebrew:”attendant”). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival. Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries.
How Chanukah Is Observed
At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah lighting. The menorah holds nine flames, one of which is the shamash (“attendant”), which is used to kindle the other eight lights. On the first night, we light just one flame. On the second night, an additional flame is lit. By the eighth night of Chanukah, all eight lights are kindled.
On Friday afternoon, care must be taken to light the menorah before Shabbat candles are lit, and the following evening they are to be kindled only after Shabbat has ended.
“The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle.”
—Rabbi Irving Greenberg
