Agenda

Hanukkah

The festival of Lights.

From January 9th to April 30th, 2009

Call de Girona

The festivity of Hanukkah, also known as Festival of Lights or Festival of Rededication, starts on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, in December. It commemorates the purification and rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem with the victory of the Maccabees at 165 BC. The lights of hanukà celebrate a victory and commemorate a miracle, that of one small vessel of oil that could illuminate the candelabra of the Temple for eight days, the necessary ones so that the priests could prepare new rations of pure oil.

It is celebrated for eight days and its main ceremony consists on lighting a lamp of eight candles in the houses (and a ninth auxiliary, the shamash) named hanukià. Moreover, special meals are prepared and children receive gifts.