Chanukah is just around the corner. What do you do to make the Festival of Lights joyful and meaningful?

Chanukah is just around the corner. What do you do to make the Festival of Lights joyful and meaningful? Asked by primerib 48 months ago Similar questions: Chanukah corner make Festival Lights joyful meaningful Society > Religion & Spirituality.

Similar questions: Chanukah corner make Festival Lights joyful meaningful.

My wife is Jewish, so I have let her answer this one... Chanukkah, the Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Chanukkah is probably one of the best known Jewish holidays, not because of any great religious significance, but because of its proximity to Christmas. Many non-Jews (and even many assimilated Jews!) think of this holiday as the Jewish Christmas, adopting many of the Christmas customs, such as elaborate gift-giving and decoration.

It is bitterly ironic that this holiday, which has its roots in a revolution against assimilation and the suppression of Jewish religion, has become the most assimilated, secular holiday on our calendar. The StoryThe story of Chanukkah begins in the reign of Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but allowed the lands under his control to continue observing their own religions and retain a certain degree of autonomy.

Under this relatively benevolent rule, many Jews assimilated much of Hellenistic culture, adopting the language, the customs and the dress of the Greeks, in much the same way that Jews in America today blend into the secular American society. More than a century later, a successor of Alexander, Antiochus IV was in control of the region. He began to oppress the Jews severely, placing a Hellenistic priest in the Temple, massacring Jews, prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion, and desecrating the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a non-kosher animal) on the altar.

Two groups opposed Antiochus: a basically nationalistic group led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his son Judah Maccabee, and a religious traditionalist group known as the Chasidim, the forerunners of the Pharisees (no direct connection to the modern movement known as Chasidism). They joined forces in a revolt against both the assimilation of the Hellenistic Jews and oppression by the Seleucid Greek government. The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated.

According to tradition as recorded in the Talmud, at the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left that had not been defiled by the Greeks. Oil was needed for the menorah (candelabrum) in the Temple, which was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah.

An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory: Jews do not glorify war. Chanukkah is not a very important religious holiday.

The holiday's religious significance is far less than that of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover, and Shavu'ot. It is roughly equivalent to Purim in significance, and you won't find many non-Jews who have even heard of Purim! Chanukkah is not mentioned in Jewish scripture; the story is related in the book of Maccabees, which Jews do not accept as scripture.

Chanukkah MenorahThe only religious observance related to the holiday is the lighting of candles. The candles are arranged in a candelabrum called a menorah (or sometimes called a chanukkiah) that holds nine candles: one for each night, plus a shammus (servant) at a different height. On the first night, one candle is placed at the far right.

The shammus candle is lit and three berakhot (blessings) are recited: l'hadlik neir (a general prayer over candles), she-asah nisim (a prayer thanking G-d for performing miracles for our ancestors at this time), and she-hekhianu (a general prayer thanking G-d for allowing us to reach this time of year). See Chanukkah Candle Lighting Blessings for the full text of these blessings. After reciting the blessings, the first candle is then lit using the shammus candle, and the shammus candle is placed in its holder.

The candles are allowed to burn out on their own after a minimum of 1/2 hour. Candlelighting Procedure Each night, another candle is added from right to left (like the Hebrew language). Candles are lit from left to right (because you pay honor to the newer thing first).

On the eighth night, all nine candles (the 8 Chanukkah candles and the shammus) are lit. See animation at right for the candlelighting procedure. On nights after the first, only the first two blessings are recited; the third blessing, she-hekhianu is only recited on the first night of holidays.

Why the shammus candle? The Chanukkah candles are for pleasure only; we are not allowed to use them for any productive purpose. We keep an extra one around (the shammus), so that if we need to do something useful with a candle, we don't accidentally use the Chanukkah candles.

The shammus candle is at a different height so that it is easily identified as the shammus. It is traditional to eat fried foods on Chanukkah because of the significance of oil to the holiday. Among Ashkenazic Jews, this usually includes latkes (pronounced "lot-kuhs" or "lot-keys" depending on where your grandmother comes from.

Pronounced "potato pancakes" if you are a goy. ) My recipe is included later in this page. Gift-giving is not a traditional part of the holiday, but has been added in places where Jews have a lot of contact with Christians, as a way of dealing with our children's jealousy of their Christian friends.

It is extremely unusual for Jews to give Chanukkah gifts to anyone other than their own young children. The only traditional gift of the holiday is "gelt," small amounts of money. Another tradition of the holiday is playing dreidel, a gambling game played with a square top.

Most people play for matchsticks, pennies, M&Ms or chocolate coins. The traditional explanation of this game is that during the time of Antiochus' oppression, those who wanted to study Torah (an illegal activity) would conceal their activity by playing gambling games with a top (a common and legal activity) whenever an official or inspector was within sight. A dreidel is marked with four Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimel, Hei and Shin.

These letters stand for the Hebrew phrase "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham", a great miracle happened there, referring to the miracle of the oil. The letters also stand for the Yiddish words nit (nothing), gantz (all), halb (half) and shtell (put), which are the rules of the game! There are some variations in the way people play the game, but the way I learned it, everyone puts in one coin.

A person spins the dreidel. If it lands on Nun, nothing happens; on Gimel (or, as we called it as kids, "gimme!"), you get the whole pot; on Hei, you get half of the pot; and on Shin, you put one in. When the pot is empty, everybody puts one in.

Keep playing until one person has everything. Then redivide it, because nobody likes a poor winner. Happy Holidays!

Sources: my opinion and experience .

Hanukkah - Family, Reading, Discussion, Food Primerib: I'll take a stab at this - Our Hanukkah is family time - I personally hear prayers in Hebrew from my wife and kids that I do not understand, but enjoy nonetheless. We spend about 20 minutes a night together lighting the menorah. Then the kids vanish.

For the past four years, my wife and I have read books pertaining to the time period - and we debate, discuss (and sometimes argue) aspects of Hanukkah - involvement of the Tobiads; when did the Antiochus decree the anti-Jewish laws in Jerusalem; what text was written just prior, during and following the revolt; the relationship to other holidays; what was the relationship between Jerusalem, the Romans, the Egyptians and the Greeks before, during and after the revolt. We have had book clubs tied to these discussions for a couple of the years. For me personally, I re-read the first and second Maccabee books as well as Daniel - I have been working on a hypothesis that Daniel was written by Oniad scribes just prior the cleansing of the temple; as a result, it is a document that captures the hopes, fears and frustrations of the last of the Zadokite followers.

I believe Onias IV had left Jerusalem for Egypt prior to the writing of Daniel. Was the book of Daniel an attempt to restore the Zadok family dynasty to the temple high priest position? Since the evidence does not exist, it takes me a long time to convince (con) myself that the hypothesis is valid - hence, every Hanukkah I open these books (as well as other references), and start the investigation again.

The apex is usually a large meal with our local extended family - some of which are very talented with the latkes. Ahhhh.... latkes. Enjoy your holiday!.

1 I am a Noahide, but as ex-Christians my family and I celebrate Hanukkah for similar reasons as you all do: gratitude to G-d for rescuing me from Greek/pagan dominance and religion. As a Gentile, I'm not grounded in Jewish tradition, so I kinda make it up as I go. :^) I put up a lot of lights (it is the Festival of Lights, after all), candles, decorate the place with the colors of the rainbow, light the menorah, play games and music.

I'm always looking for something new to add to the decorations or activities.

I am a Noahide, but as ex-Christians my family and I celebrate Hanukkah for similar reasons as you all do: gratitude to G-d for rescuing me from Greek/pagan dominance and religion. As a Gentile, I'm not grounded in Jewish tradition, so I kinda make it up as I go. :^) I put up a lot of lights (it is the Festival of Lights, after all), candles, decorate the place with the colors of the rainbow, light the menorah, play games and music.

I'm always looking for something new to add to the decorations or activities.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.