Jewish · worldwide · the date moves each year

Hanukkah

Eight nights in Kislev — one more candle each night, in a window where it can be seen.

What happened

Hanukkah remembers the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BCE, and the tradition that one day's worth of oil burned for eight. The menorah has nine branches: eight nights plus the shamash, the helper candle that lights the others and is never counted among them.

Why it stuck

The candle that does the lighting is not counted. A child can hold that idea for a lifetime.

What a family can do

Put the menorah where it can be seen from outside — the point is that it is public. Foods fried in oil.

Questions to work through

1. Why nine branches for eight nights? What is the ninth for?
2. The candles are lit left to right but placed right to left. Work out why that might be.
3. Why is the menorah put in a window rather than on a table?