Tag: Holiday

Northern California, for the most part, is predominately Christian, but there’s a larger populous believing in some version of Eastern or New Age ideas (with regards to the Bay Area it’s surprising low to hear “about 1 in 4 Americans believe in Eastern or New Age ideas” from Pew Forum survey). It wasn’t until moving to NY that I was exposed to any Jewish culture that wasn’t read in books. It’s been a welcome education to be immersed in the culture, philosophy, events, art and food of the diverse people of NY and the Jews are a huge part of that here.

The festival of Lights starts today and lasts 8 days where an additional candle is placed in the Menorah from right to left on each night, and then lit from left to right. On the last night, all the candles are lit. Here are a few more trivia bits I’ve picked up.

Chanukah begins four days before the new moon, which is the darkest night of the Kislev month.

Chanukah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees or Israelites over the Greek-Syrian ruler, Antiochus about 2200 years ago. Chanukah story is not written about in the Torah. It happened several hundred years after the Torah is believed to have been given to the Jewish people, on Mount Sinai.

It takes 44 candles all together to observe all the eight nights of the Chanukah festival. The candles used for lighting Hanukah Menorah are supposed to burn for at least half an hour after the stars come out.

For most of its history, Hanukkah was a minor holiday. It gained popularity in the late 1800s, eventually becoming one of the most celebrated Jewish holidays in the calendar.

Photo by me in a LES bathroom