Page 1    Page 2    Page 3    Page 4   |   Home Join Us and Light Our On-Line Menorah During The Eight Days of CHANUKAH! Join Us and Light Our On-Line Menorah During The Eight Days of CHANUKAH! "I Have A Little Dreidel" On Line Menorah    Tina's Hanukkah Story  Printer Friendly Version First Book of Maccabees     Second Book of Maccabees FEEL FREE TO LINK TO THESE PAGES We encourage you to link to these pages, and also to our entire site, amightywind.com or almightywind.com. WE HAVE A MENORAH FOR YOU! We've received emails from those wishing to celebrate Hanukkah correctly, but who do not have access to a Menorah. If this is your situation, be of good cheer, for we have a Menorah which you can use on-line and, each day, place a lighted candle in its rightful place in celebration of the LIGHT of the WORLD, YAHUSHUA ha MASHIACH. All you need to do is click on the Menorah above or On Line Menorah and enjoy your very own Menorah! Shalom! Email from Stephen (Hong Kong): "Dear Beloved Sister Elisabeth, How are you? I've got an idea, how about let's celebrate Hannukah together over the Internet? I'm praying to God for a menorah and a set of candles. Love in YAHUSHUA, Stephen." Chanukah--also spelled Hanukkah. Hanukkah--means "dedication" and is also referred to as "The Festival of Lights", is a Jewish festival which begins on the Hebrew date of the 25th of Kislev and lasts eight days, through the 2nd of Tevet. This year 2008 that corresponds to... Sunset December 20, thru Sunset December 28, 2011 Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees (led by Judah) over the Hellenistic Syrians in a revolt that took place around 165 BCE (note: Jews use BCE--Before the Common Era and CE--the Common Era instead of BC and AD). The victory in itself was considered a miracle, but Jewish legend gives an additional explanation for Chanukah rituals, explained below. Once the Temple Mount in Jerusalem had been reclaimed, the Temple had to be rededicated. According to legend, only one jar of sacramental oil was found, enough for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, thus the eight days of Chanukah. The most important Chanukah ritual is the candle lighting. Jews light candles in a special candleholder called a "menorah" or a "hanukkiah". Each night, one more candle is added. The middle candle, called the "shamash", is used to light each of the other candles and it is lit every night. Therefore, on the first night of Chanukah, two candles are lit (the shamash and the candle for the first night) and on the last night, there are nine lit candles. It is traditional to eat foods fried in oil during Chanukah. Some common foods are potato latkes and "sufganiot" (jelly doughnuts).

Another tradition is to play the "dreidel" game. A dreidel (or "sivivon") is a four-sided top. On each side is a different Hebrew letter: (nun), (gimel), (heh) and (peh), corresponding to the words in the sentence "nes gadol haya po" ("A great miracle happened here"). Of course, the miracle happened in Israel, so outside of Israel, the letter (peh) is replaced by (shin) for "nes gadol haya sham" ("A great miracle happened there"). The dreidel is used for a gambling game in which each letter represents a different amount of money (or whatever...) won or lost.

Another common Chanukah practice is giving gifts or "gelt" (money) to children. In Hebrew, "gelt" is called "d'mei Chanukah" In Israel, Chanukah is a very festive time. Schools are out for a week and there are lots of parties and special events around the country. We sing Chanukah songs (like the one playing in the background), eat lots of food and have lots of fun! Page 1    Page 2    Page 3    Page 4   |   Home

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