Rare occurrence means Hanukkah beings on Christmas Eve

“This time of year always made me feel a little left out because in school there were so many Christmas songs and all us Jewish kids had was the song ‘Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel, ‘” Sandler said before singing the now-iconic song.

“It’s a kind of holiday that’s celebrated in a very open way and has a universal message for everyone”, he said.

“Hanukkah really is seen as a battle between light and dark, good and evil”, he said. The Jewish Temple was defiled by the Greeks and had to be rededicated, he said. When Jews were persecuted for studying their texts, they would hide it by playing a game with the dreidel. In 168 B.C., his soldiers descended upon Jerusalem, massacring thousands of people and desecrating the city’s holy Second Temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs within its sacred walls. “A small group called the Maccabees rose up to defend Jewish tradition”.

Years ago, Rabbi Daniel Swartz experienced the miracle of Hanukkah while studying out West.

While many families will be setting out plates of cookies tonight for Santa Claus, others will be waiting until the sun goes down to begin their eight-day celebration of Hanukkah.

Indeed, the excitement is building for the Ebert family of Easton, who celebrate both holidays. That’s why the holy month of Ramadan moves about the Gregorian calendar, creeping back about 10 days each year. “The only reason it happens to fall that way this year is the lunar calendar”.

Hanukkah has also started on Christmas Day only four times in the last 100 years. Gift-giving has risen in popularity due to the festival’s proximity to Christmas.

The Hanukkah menorah is traditionally intended not to light the house but “to illuminate the house within”. Do you know which synagogue these two menorahs come from? Each night another candle is lit. – Emma Lazarus6. “The commandment to light the Hanukkah lamp is an exceedingly precious one, and one should be particularly careful to fulfill it”. Sammy adds that the occasion is also celebrated with special candies like doughnuts and potato pancakes, as well as an exchange of gifts among Jewish families. It has become a much more prominent festival because of the time of year.

As each player spins the dreidl the outcome is decided by the fall of the top and the letter it shows: nun stands for the Yiddish nights meaning the player takes nothing; gimel means gan (all), he indicates hale (half), and shin stands for shell (put in more).

“The main point of Hanukkah in Mansfield is all people during the winter need a holiday of light, of hope, of goodness and of peace”, Oppenheimer said.

Obama linked the celebration of the Jewish holiday to the country’s right to freedom of religion. “That’s particularly a sensitive issue right now after the election and lots of things that were said and are still being said”.

Hanukkah 2016 begins in the evening on Saturday 24 December and ends on the evening of Sunday 1 January. The service is free and open to the public.

Saturday, 6:30 p.m.: Clinton Square, downtown Syracuse.

Those interested in attending the temple’s Hanukkah celebration Wednesday are encouraged to RSVP by Monday.