Hanukkah

Hanukkah, often spelled Chanukah, is the Jewish Festival of Lights. For eight nights in early winter, families gather at the window, light one more candle than the night before, and fry something delicious in oil. It begins at sundown on 25 Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, and this page counts down to that first evening for you, live and down to the second.

The story of the Maccabees

In the 160s BCE, Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire, and its king, Antiochus IV, outlawed Jewish practice and turned the Temple in Jerusalem into a pagan shrine. A priest named Mattathias and his five sons led a revolt, and one son, Judah, known as the Maccabee, led the fighting. In 164 BCE his forces took back the Temple. On 25 Kislev, the same date it had been defiled, they rededicated the altar and celebrated for eight days, and they declared that those days should be kept every year. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for dedication.

The story many families tell around the menorah comes from the Talmud, written down centuries later. It says that when the Temple was reclaimed, only one small jar of pure oil was found, still sealed by the High Priest, with enough to light the Temple lamp for a single day. It burned for eight. The Books of Maccabees remember the victory and the rededication, and the rabbis remembered the light, and Hanukkah keeps both.

The menorah and the shamash

The Hanukkah menorah, called a hanukkiah in Hebrew, holds nine lights: one for each night, plus the shamash, the helper candle used to light the rest. The shamash sits apart from the others, higher or off to the side, so it never gets counted as one of the nights. On the first night a single candle goes at the far right. Each night after that, one more joins it on the left, and the newest is lit first.

The lights are meant to be seen. The Talmud asks families to place them at the door facing the street, or in a window if they live upstairs, so the whole neighborhood shares the glow. That’s why so many menorahs end up on a windowsill, shining out into the winter night.

Latkes, sufganiyot and the dreidel

The oil story is the reason for the food. Families fry potato latkes until they’re golden and crisp, and in Israel the favorite is sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts. Kids spin the dreidel, a four-sided top, for piles of foil-wrapped chocolate gelt, and the letters on its sides spell out the holiday’s message: a great miracle happened there.

A small holiday with a big glow

In religious terms Hanukkah is a minor festival. It isn’t commanded in the Torah. Yet it’s one of the most loved days of the Jewish year, and in the United States it has grown into a big, warm family season, with public menorah lightings in town squares, gifts for kids and parties full of latkes. Whether you light candles every night or you’re joining friends for one of them, a countdown makes the wait part of the fun.