HANUKKAH BEGINS AT SUNDOWN TONIGHT

Hanukkah is a joyous Jewish festival.  Don't worry too much about the spelling, for there must be half a dozen ways to do that.  This 8-day festival of lights starts at sundown tonight (always on Sunday) and runs through December 6 this year.  The start date can vary from around Thanksgiving to after Christmas.

Each night one more candle is lit on a candelebrum called a chanukiah, placed at a window to the left of the door, if possible.  But you ask, why are there 9 lights/candles?  Especially as there are 8 days of lighting and the seal of the State of Israel has 7, which is the standard menorah.  

The middle one, the shamash (means attendant, and is always higher or lower than the other candles), is the helper candle that is used to light the others.  There is an order beginning with one the first night, plus the samash, lighted after sunset, except for that Friday (because of the Sabbat, so the lighting should begin before sunset) with one more each night.  Each candle must last for at least half an hour, and allowed to burn out, but can be extinguished and thrown away after that 30-minute period, if you are leaving the scene, for safety purposes.  The candle color is left to your choice.   

Oil lamps can be used instead of candles.  An electric chanukiah is only for decorative purposes and doesn't officially qualify to fulfill the ceremony.  There are also right to left lighting rules, prayers, blessings, and singing, but when all is done, 44 candles will be lit by the eighth night.

There is a lot of history to why Hanukkah, dating back to the second century BC, which you can read if you wish. There is something about the miracle oil, which evolved into the practice today.

• Yummy fried and oily treats:  latkes (potato pancakes), sulfayiyot (jelly-filled doughnuts) gelt (chocolate coins) and sfinj (fried sweed doughy donuts), although more recently, they now come in smaller sizes to reduce caloric intake.

• 
  Games, like spinning tops or dreidels.
• Gift-giving, where the term gelt is also used for gold coins.  
• Songs:
• here is one top ten.

• Another, with Adam Sandler's The Chanukah Song is #4.
• 
  Also sung by Neil Diamond at #11.
• #21 is Rock of Ages by Def Leppard.  

• 
  Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like the Rock of Ages more traditionally sung during Hanukkah, and also called Maoz Tzur.
• I grew up attending a Christian church and sang yet another Rock of Ages.

While I'm at this, there is another celebration called Kwanzaa.  This is of African-American culture and always held from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a communal feast called Karamu.  You would think that the roots would be from the African continent brought over by slaves.  Nope, it was created by Maulana Karenga in 1966 following the Los Angeles Watts riots.  

Seven candles symbolize the seven principles of Kwanzaa:

Actually, Kwanzaa celebrations have declined, and in 2015 only 2% of the population honored the period.  Maya Angelou narrated a 2012 documentary called The Black Candle.

I should add that there are a few Hanukkah films, including one by Adam Sandler in 2002, Eight Crazy Nights (Rotten Tomatoes: 12/49), said to be a raunchy animated flick.  Seth Rogan has two, and some of you might seen another animated, An American Tail (RT: 72/71), from where came Somewhere Out There, recorded by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, about a mouse family, and not realized that cats are anti-semitic here.  Others have surely watched the 2010 Little Fockers (RT:9/34), the third and final film in the Meet the Parents series, with Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman, Owen Wilson and Jessica Alba.

Want to relax for 10 hours?  Listen to Weightless by Marconi Union.  Marconi Union is a UK band that has been around for almost two decades.