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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Broward chapter.
What to know about Hanukkah? Here are the facts:
- The guttural sound used to pronounce Hanukkah cannot be represented in the English alphabet. That is why there are so many different spellings. All are acceptable.
- The word Hanukkah means dedication. It refers to the re – dedication of the temple after the Maccabees re – captured it from the Greeks.
- As part of that re – dedication, an oil lamp was lit. There was enough oil to last only one day, but miraculously, it lasted eight. For this reason, the Hanukkah celebration lasts for eight days.
- Today a menorah (a candle stick holding eight candles and an additional “helper” candle called a shamash) is lit every day of the eight day Hanukkah celebration.
- Throughout the eight day celebration, a menorah will burn through 44 candles. On the first night one candle is lit, then two the second night, three the third and so on.
- Over 17 million oily donuts, called sufganiyot, are eaten in Israel every year during the eight day Hanukkah celebration. It commemorates the miracle of the oil.
- Spinning a dreidel was done by students illegally studying the Torah. When Greek soldiers made surprise raids, the students pulled out dreidels and pretended to be gambling.
- To help them learn about charity, children receive gelt (the Yiddish word for money) as part of the Hanukkah celebration.