Hanukkah: Origin, Menorah, Food & Games!

 Get ready to discover a holiday filled with light, tradition, and celebration…Hanukkah! In this article, you’ll learn what Hanukkah is and how it became a holiday, the Menorah, and the food and games played. 

Hanukkah is a festival celebrated by people of the Jewish religion. Hanukkah celebrates the victories of Maccabees and the re-dedication of the temple. Hanukkah starts on Kislev 25, 164 B.C.E. The Maccabees were the first of the religion to defend their religion over their lives. A Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, invaded Judaea trying to Hellenize the people of the Judaism religion. Antiochus violently disrespected the second temple in Jerusalem by destroying parts of the temple. After the Maccabees won the battle with Antiochus, Judas ordered the cleansing and restoration of the temple. Leading us to Kislev 25. Judas soon found a jar of oil. The jar contained only one day’s worth of oil, but it ended up lasting eight. This is why Hanukkah is eight days long. 

An important part of Hanukkah is the Menorah. Menorah is Hebrew for lamp. It has nine branches, eight for each night of Hanukkah. However, there is a ninth branch, known as shammash. In Hebrew, shammash means servant. Meaning, it is used to light the other candles. The candles are inserted in the Menorah right to left but are lit the opposite way, left to right. This was how they were lit in the original temple. People decided to keep the tradition in which way they are inserted, and lit. Each night a candle is newly lit, a blessing is offered.

What delicious, buttery, fried foods are prepared? And what timeless, lively game brings everyone together? The two most common Hanukkah foods are potato cakes and doughnuts. In Hebrew, potato cakes are called latkes and the sweet, fluffy doughnuts are called sufganiyot. Hanukkah foods are fried in oil symbolizing the miraculous oil that burned for eight days in the temple. The most common Hanukkah game is dreidel. A Dreidel is an object with four sides. Each side has a Hebrew letter that spells out the phrase, nes gadol haya sham, which means, “a miracle happened there.” To play dreidel, you need game pieces, which in most cases is Hanukkah gelt. Hanukkah gelt are gifts and money, but in most cases, the money is chocolate coins. Once a player picks their game pieces the game begins. A player spins the dreidel, and then they will play their piece based off of what letter they rolled on. The winner of the game is the person who still has their game pieces whilst, everyone else is out of pieces.

Hanukkah is a wonderful holiday with many delicious foods and games. This holiday is celebrated by many people. “What I look forward to most during Hanukkah is lighting the candles every night. Getting on a FaceTime call with my family to light the candles brings me back to when I was a little kid, celebrating Hanukkah, eating latkes and chocolate gelt. Every night, my dad ends the candle lighting by singing Hanukkah songs out of key, and it’s a tradition that has become one of my favorite parts of the holiday.” -Hannah Lansky (my aunt)

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hanukkah Britannica

https://www.britannica.com/topic/menorah Britannica