Hanukkah

Hanukkah 2014 begins in the evening of
Tuesday, December 16
and ends in the evening of
Wednesday, December 24

Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the 2nd century BC. According to Chabad.org, more than 21 centuries ago, the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks) ruled the Holy Land when a small band of Jews drove them from the land, as they wanted to subvert the Jewish faith and profane the sanctity of their lives. They reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of God.

However, when they went to light the Temple’s seven-branched candelabrum, or menorah, there was only a single cruse of oil that had escaped contamination from the Greeks. That one-day supply miraculously burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under the right conditions. Hanukkah commemorates that miracle. The holiday is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which this year falls on Dec. 16 of the Gregorian calendar.

This holiday celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality, and as we prepare to celebrate it, here are some ideas to wish your friends and loved ones a Happy Hanukkah.