This year, Hanukkah coincides with Christmas Day, a rare occurrence. Learn about the history and traditions of Hanukkah, including the lighting of the menorah and the significance of oil in its celebration.
Hanukkah , also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew, is Judaism’s “ festival of lights .” On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah—a multibranched candelabra. In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BC, after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.
With the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the temple, they lit the menorah—and it stayed lit for eight days. The ritual of lighting a nightly candle, as well as the emphasis on cooking foods in oil such as potato pancakes called latkes, memorialize this miraculously long-lasting oil. The dates of the holiday are based on the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually coincides with November-December in the Gregorian calendar. This year, Hanukkah is celebrated from December 25, through January 2, 2025. It’s only the fifth time since 1900 that Hanukkah has fallen on Christmas Day. Why is Hanukkah so late this year? The reason is that the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles, and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar which sets Christmas on December 25. Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date which occurs between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar. Jews across the religious observance spectrum—from Reform to Conservative to Orthodox—focus on the same theme of bringing light into the darkness and emphasizing that even a small, against-the-odds effort can have a transforming effect. For this reason, even though the Talmud reflects a dispute over the order of lighting, most start with one candle and increase the lighting by one more candle each night while reciting or chanting special blessings. The candles are added from right to left, but lit from left to right on the menorah, thus always starting with the newest light
Hanukkah Jewish Holidays Festival Of Lights Menorah Temple Jerusalem Christmas
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