Happy Hanukkah to Whitehall's Jewish Families

This time of year, most of the families in Whitehall are busy decorating for Christmas, shopping for Christmas gifts, and planning Christmas dinner. But a few families in Whitehall are focused on a holiday that begins on the evening of December 7th and lasts for eight days, Hanukkah, also known as The Festival of Lights. The holiday, like Christmas, is marked by food, the lighting of candles, and prayer.

What is Hanukkah, and how is it different from Christmas? Hanukkah is not "Jewish Christmas." Although the holidays often fall at the same time of year, the dates for celebrating Chanukkah vary each year as the Jewish calendar is lunar and not solar. Although Hanukkah celebrates a miracle, it is also the celebration of a military victory. A little over 2,100 years ago Israel was ruled by the Syrian-Greek Empire. These people outlawed Jewish religion and culture in an attempt to make everyone conform to Greek religion and customs. Greek soldiers entered the Temple in Jerusalem, using it as a place to worship idols and sacrifice animals, including pigs. A small Jewish army fought back and finally drove the Greeks from Israel. When the priests of the Temple began to clean up from the Greek occupation, they discovered that there was only enough oil to light the lamps for one day and that it would take eight days to make new oil. The miracle of Hanukkah was that the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, allowing the priests to prepare new oil.

To remember the miracle of the oil Jewish families light a special Hanukkah menorah, a candelabra that holds nine candles. The central candle is the shamash, the candle that is used to light the other candles. Each night an additional candle is lit until all nine candles burn. Families also celebrate by eating foods fried in oil, including latkes (potato pancakes, and sufganiyot (jelly-filled donuts). Children also play games with a dreidel, which is a four-sided top. There are Hebrew letters on the dreidel which spell out the phrase "a great miracle happened there," unless the dreidel is from Israel, in which case the last letter stands for the word "here." It is traditional to give children Hanukkah gelt (money) as a gift, although many families also give chocolate gelt.

In this season of miracles, we wish you peace and joy. And, like the Hanukkah candles, may you be a light unto the world. Happy Hanukkah!