Happy Chanukah!

While staying in Israel, we learned interesting things about Chanukah, and celebrated it with many people.  Here are some of the things I learned.

First of all you should know that Chanukah is a celebration of miracles.  The second thing you should know is the history and why Chanukah is celebrated.

During the Hellenistic period, the time when the Greeks battled with the Jewish people, there was no light in the second temple built by King Herod.  The only thing that would give the Jewish people light was a candle.  There was only enough oil to light a candle for one day, but instead it lasted eight days, which was a miracle!

Today, Chanukah is celebrated by Jewish people all over the world.  This year, the holiday was from the 16th to the23rd of December and we were lucky enough to be in Israel during this time.

To celebrate Chanukah, Jewish people follow three main traditions.

1. Eat a lot of yummy foods like Latkes and Sufganiyot (doughnuts).

Latkes

Yummy!

Traditional jelly flavour

A package of yummyness

Extra shot of filling

Kiwi!

Yum Yum!

2. Encourage people to get into the holiday spirit by singing and playing music.

walking around encouraging people to get into the holiday spirit!

Lighting the candles

Ta daa

3. Lighting the chanukiah every evening for eight days to represent the miracle that happened during the Hellenistic period.

Chanukah

Three candles were lit, three days of Chanukah are done

One lit up at night

One on a roof

On street lamps

Night number 0ne

Third night

Giving Light

You are probably thinking “the candle stick is not called a chanukiah, it is called a menorah.”  Well, I will tell you the difference.

The Menorah

The menorah is a seven branched candle stick and a symbol of the Jewish faith.  It was taken by the Romans from the second temple built by King Herod.

The Chanukiah

The chanukiah is a candle stick with nine candle holders. We saw a lot of chanukiahs in many places such as in squares, in the houses and on top of cars.

Some in front of a house

a chanukiah on top of a car

ta daa- beautiful!

The chanukiah is used for Chanukah because there are eight days of Chanukah and nine branches to place the candles.  Now you are probably thinking “but if there are eight days of Chanukah, and nine candle holders, then is there an empty spot on the last day?”  The answer is no, there is not an empty spot.  Every night the candle in the middle is lit and is used to light the other candles starting from the newest candle.  For an example, if it was the third day the middle candle would be lit first and then the other three candles on the right.  The candles are lit starting from the left (the newest candle) to the right.  Now you are probably thinking “ why do you have to light the candles from left to right?”  The answer is because if you have new guests over, you want to make them feel part of the group and welcome.

Have you ever heard this song before?  Play the video to hear it!

I think it should actually be…

Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah, come light the chanukiah!

Candles are lit after sun down while everybody is still outside because showing the light is the most important part of Chanukah.

After the miracle, the people were deciding whether to light eight candles and take one away each night or to start with one and finish with eight.  They decided to finish with eight so that each night there would be more light.

In addition to lighting the chanukiah, eating delicious foods and encouraging people to celebrate, children like to play with dreidels which are small toys that are like spinning tops.  In the beginning of this post, I mentioned that Chanukah is celebrated by Jewish people all over the world, do you remember?  Well, it has to do with the dreidels.  In other places around the world, like Canada, the U.S.A. and Mexico, the writing on the dreidels in Hebrew say: The miracle happened there (meaning Israel).  The dreidels in Israel says: The miracle happened here.

We had a great time celebrating Chanukah and can’t wait to learn about more new holidays as we travel the world!