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Happy Hanukkah

Hanukkah - (Hebrew for "dedication") The Jewish festival of lights that commemorates the rededication of the Jerusalem temple to more traditional modes of Jewish worship by Judah the Maccabee around 164 B.C.E. after its desecration in the time of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

What do you do on this day?

Hanukkah Happy

It is dedication, but the holiday is actually named after another meaning of the word, inauguration, for the inauguration of the temple.

I'm Jewish, and we're celebrating the holiday in Mexico . We're actually not that religious, but we still like to celebrate the holidays and festivities. There are probably alot of rules on what you should or should not do in the holiday, like every other Jewish holiday, but we just light the candles and sing Hanukkah songs.

Just to suppress a notion that alot seem to have, in Hanukkah, unlike christmass, you don't give presents to each other. I've had some people come to me and say they're jealous - I'm getting a present a day for the nine days of Hanukkah , and I had no idea what they were talking about.

Happy Hanukkah Reviews Consumer & Travel Family Culture

It's not that i never WANTED to do anything on chanukah, it's just that i ain't jewish.. but never the less, my mother would force us to pull a manora... munoruh.. manoruh... whatever... she would force us to pull the candle thingy outta the closet and light them. We would then *try* to spin a dreidel... it useually ended with me playing video games. And that kinda stuck. So every year for chanukah, i play Chrono Trigger. This is the only time i *ever* play it, mind you. So yeah... it's not much, but it's what I do.

Hanukkah Happy

HANUKKAH CEREMONY AT GREAT WALL MARKS HISTORIC FIRST

The small Jewish community in Beijing has lit the first light of Hanukkah at the Great Wall of China, in the first time that the festival of lights has been celebrated there.
Ref. https://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/200...kah-051225.html

Hanukkah Happy

Smudge, I was rather surprised when I saw that your post said that you don't get presents for Hanukkah,and that you don't get a present a day for 9 days.

As I am not Jewish, I feel I can't question this, but what I would like to say, is that I have worked for at least 17 Jewish families in England, including a Rabbi, and I have not met one of these families that does not receive/exchange presents for the 9 days of Hannukkah.Although some only exchange smaller "token" gifts, other families have bought their kids PS2.I have always bought the children that I have looked after, a small present, normally a bag of kosher candy.

I am wondering whether maybe, as a lot of English Jews' ancestors have been from Eastern Europe, maybe some of their traditions have been mixed in, and has now just become combined to one tradition that maybe hasn't come from direct Judaism?

What are your thoughts on this? I would love to hear!

Happy Hanukkah

Yeah, that may be possible, but I don't know any more than you on that subject. I was thinking that the reason why American jews give gifts is an effort to mimic the gift-giving of christmas. All I know is that, when I lived in Israel, no one would give gifts as generous as they give in the United States. Maybe my grandmother would buy me a book, or give me the equivalent of 10 dollars in Israeli currency, but it was just an act of generosity, and was not out of any custom that I know of.