Latest News, Uncategorized, WVPA Sharing

Fourth time in the last 100 years: Celebration of Hanukkah begins on Christmas Eve

By CHARLIE BOOTHE

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUE FIELD, W.Va.  — For only the fourth time in the last 100 years, the start of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah (or Chanukah) will be on Christmas Eve.

The first candle (of the eight) on the menorah will be lit at sunset on Christmas Eve and the last on the night of New Year’s Eve.

“It is unusual for it to start on the holiday,” said Doris Kantor of Bluefield. “It can start as early as Thanksgiving (late November).”

Kantor said the start of Hanukkah, also knows as the Festival of Lights, is based on the Jewish calendar and is held to commemorate a miracle that occurred more 2,000 years ago.

The Selecuid King Antiochus IV instituted the first anti-Jewish laws in history, she said, and if Jews chose to observe their Sabbath and practice circumcision, they would do so at the penalty of death.

“The last straw fell in December of that year (167 B.C.E. – Before the Common Era) when Antiochus transformed the Jewish Temple, which Jews viewed as God’s earthly abode and the only legitimate place at which to offer sacrifices, into a pagan shrine.”

Kantor said that oppression, along with aristocratic Jews embracing Greek practices contrary to the Jewish religion, created a “toxic environment” that resulted in a revolt led by a family of rural priests.

The rebellion took three years but the Maccabees finally retook the temple. However, they discovered only one day’s worth of oil to burn in the menorah, a candelabra that sat in the temple, she said.

“It miraculously burned for eight days,” she said.

Kantor said during the holiday Jews light a menorah each night for eight days.

“Throughout the holiday, family members sing songs, eat jelly donuts and potato cakes (latkes) with applesauce, play dreidel, exchange gifts, and most importantly spend time with each other bringing into a season of cold the warmth of love,” she said.

Kantor said the holiday is not really a religious holiday, though.

“It’s not going to the temple,” she said. “It’s a family celebration of a miracle and the rededication of the temple.”

Kantor said when her kids were at home, they always followed the tradition with them, including exchanging a gift each night of Hanukkah.

The last time the start of Hanukkah fell on Christmas Eve was in 1978 and before that in 1940.

A menorah is lit in every household (or even by each individual within the household) and placed in a doorway or window. The menorah is also lit in synagogues and other public places.

The word Hanukkah means “dedication,” because it refers to the rededication of the temple.

 A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top bearing the Hebrew letters, nun, gimmel, hei and shin, an acronym for nes gadol hayah sham, “a great miracle happened there.” The game is usually played for a pot of coins, nuts, or other stuff, which is won or lost based on which letter the dreidel lands when it is spun.

Latkes are shredded potatoes and onions along with eggs and flour fried in vegetable oil. The oil is used for frying to commemorate the oil for the menorah.

The Jewish calendar is based on phases of the moon and continues to be used to determine the dates for Jewish holidays.

For Hanukkah, the start falls on the 25th day of the month of Kislev in the Jewish calendar. The Hanukkah period lasts for eight days and is celebrated from the 25th day of Kislev to the second day of Tevet.

The Jewish calendar doesn’t quite line up with the solar-based Gregorian calendar. As a result of a differentiation in calendar systems, Hanukkah’s start date in the United States fluctuates year to year, falling anywhere between Nov. 27 and Dec. 26 on the Gregorian calendar.

Hanukkah has also started on Christmas Day only four times in the last 100 years.

See more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

And get our latest content in your inbox

Invalid email address