The annual Jewish festival of lights officially kicked off this week, with communities all around the world coming together to celebrate Hanukkah - but what is the holiday really about?
With Christmas just a few short days away, many of us may not have realised that another religious festival is also taking place this week, as Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas in 2022.
In what is now modern day Israel, the country was previously ruled in that era by the Seleucids, a Greek-Syrian nation that tried to force the Jews to give up their religion. In 2022, Hanukkah will take place from the evening of Sunday, December 18 and will run until the evening of Monday, 26 December.Hanukkah is usually celebrated by nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and eating foods fried in oil. One extra candle is lit each night until all eight are burning on the final night.
Another popular tradition is for children to play with dreidels, a kind of spinning top marked with one of four Hebrew letters on either side, which stands for “a great miracle happened there”, often for chocolate coins, or gelt. What about Chrismukkah? In recent years, many families, particularly those with integrated families, have opted to celebrate Chrismukkah instead of Hanukkah, as they amalgamate both Christmas and Hanukkah into one week long holiday.
“If it makes you happy don’t worry about what anyone else thinks… The magic of this time of year for me, is about the magic I used to dream up when I was little and it was full of fairies & glitter so that was the theme for this year.”
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