Hanukkah Begins Sunday At Sundown

ACROSS AMERICA — Jews in the United States and around the world will begin celebrating Hanukkah with a ceremonial lighting of the first candle on the menorah at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 18, and light all eight candles the evening of Monday, Dec.26.

Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for dedication. The eight-day observance commemorates the reconsecration of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after Jews rose up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt in Second Century B.C.

After the revolution, scholars of Judaism believe, pure olive oil was so scarce there was only enough to light one of the candles on the menorah; however, it lasted for eight days, long enough for the supply to be replenished. Hanukkah is called the Jewish Festival of Lights to celebrate the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days.

At sundown each night of the Hanukkah celebration, Jewish people light a candle on the menorah, a nine-branched candelabra that includes a candle cup for each night of the celebration, along with a ninth cup to hold the candle used to light the others.