I had to wait until last night’s candle lighting to make this one.
May your Hanukkah be full of doughnuts & your doughnuts full of jam
🙂
Happy Hanukkah to all!!!

Hanukkah
In the 2nd Century BCE, the second temple of Jerusalem was looted & Judaism was outlawed by the Greek King Antiochus.
A Jewish priest named Mattityahu & his five sons stirred up a rebellion against Antiochus.
The Jewish uprising was eventually successful & the temple was purified & rededicated.
The purification of the temple required burning only the purest olive oil, but only one flask was left.
The flask contained only enough oil to burn for one day & eight days were needed to prepare more.
Miraculously the oil burnt for a full eight days allowing the menorah to be kept alight as required.
An annual Festival of Lights – Hanukkah – was declared to celebrate the miracle.
The Hanukiah
The traditional seven-branched menorah is replaced, during Hanukkah, by the nine-branched Hanukiah.
Eight of the lights represent the eight days of the oil burning in the temple.
The ninth, usually central & distinctly separate from the others, is lit first & used to light the others.
The Kindling
Each evening for eight evenings just before sunset the central light is lit & used to light the other lights.
On the first evening the central light is used to light just one other light.
On each successive evening one extra light is added until on the eighth evening eight have been added.
The illuminated Hanukiah is placed by the window to remind passers-by of the miracle.
Traditions
The lighting of the Hanukiah is accompanied by blessings, songs & fried foods.
Among the most popular fried foods eaten during Hanukkah now are the Sufganyot, otherwise known as doughnuts.
“First Candle”
by
is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Available as a print from
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
Related articles
- Happy Hanukkah: Next Time Jewish Holiday Falls On Thanksgiving Will Be 80,000 Years From Now (americanlivewire.com
-
- Spinning a Web of Words | In Harmony
- Courage | The Magic Black Book
- DP : Irrational Fear | Experimental Fiction
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Everyday Adventures
- It was November, and I was afraid | Butterfly Mind
- Fanning the Flames of Fear | Spirit Lights The Way
- Emotional Baggage | Kate Murray
- My.Vivid.Visions | Daily Prompt: Fear Factor
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Under the Monkey Tree
- 227. Fear Factor | Barely Right of Center
- Arthur Overcomes The Fear Of Books, (short fiction) | The Jittery Goat
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Insanitree
- Fear Factor: A litany of phobias | James Clegg
- Courage | Momma Said There’d Be Days Like This
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Finding Life
- I ain’t afraid of no ghosts…or whatever the line is from “Ghostbusters” | thoughtsofrkh
- theferkel | My Irrational Fear of Spiders
- ermahgerhd | Darkness
- Going through Childbirth | A mom’s blog
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | On My Front Porch
- Rob’s Surf Report
- Fear | The Nameless One
- Fear | victor’s mind
- Not being loved | alienorajt
- MONSTER MYTHS – not exactly bedtime stories | Historiefortelling
- DP: Courage and Facing Fears | 3 Nish on a Journey
- Fear Factor | Braised Pork on Rice
- Conception of acceptation | Veni, vici, vidi
- I Still Walk Miles… | Retrofocus
- DAILY PROMPT: FEAR FACTOR – EEK! | SERENDIPITY
- HIGH HOPES | seifsalamakarem
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Awl and Scribe
- Tough Mudder and My Glass Case of Emotion | Lori’s Life and Other Stuff
- Daily Prompt : Fear Factor | Scary Movie Ghosts | LoudThoughtsVoicedOut
- Fear | CombatBabe
- An Irrational Fear | Hey there, I’m Jimin.
- Phobophobia | Processing the life
- My Other Blog | Daily Prompt: Fear Factor
- Fear: Good or Bad? | meanderedwanderings
- Just Sayin’
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Basically Beyond Basic
- Open Hearts… | Haiku By Ku
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
- Afraid of death | Life is great
- Stagecraft | vic briggs
- Daily Prompt: Fear | Bowl of Rice
- My Not so Unique Fear | TechnoTom
- Must not cry, must not cry, must not freaking cry!! | Random Encounters of an Inquisitive Mind
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | 20 Lines A Day
- It takes courage… | Words ‘n Pics
- Be the Light | Eyes to Heart
- The Species of the Two-Legged Beast | Lipstick and Lithium
- Jangan takut untuk takut | The Frozen Tears
- Courage | Flowers and Breezes
- Daily Prompt: Arachnawhoha | One Starving Activist
- Fear Factor. | ♡ self destruction ♡
- FEAR – Enemies and Other Mean People | Sisters of Christ
- Daily Prompt: Courage-Riddle Me This | UP! With Jesus
- My Apple is Poisoned | An Upturned Soul
- A LIVING DEATH | Emotional Fitness
- More Food for Thought on Spiders… | Once There Was a Penguin
- Behind Closed Doors | Blue Loft
- Cottage-ing Gone Wrong | carellyn
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | SIM | ANTICS
- Daily Prompt: Fear Factor | Poetry
- She often was afraid | tjbarkerseattle
I always wanted to know about the Jewish traditions. I liked your explanation.
LikeLike
Thanks sheenmeem. It was very basic but I like to include a brief explanation of any religious, cultural or mythological connections to my pictures if I can.
LikeLike
Happy Hanukkah !!! 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks Olga 🙂
LikeLike
Beautiful picture and informative post.
LikeLike
Thank You draccoonia, our modern lives are so bombarded with visual images. I always like to know the story behind a picture & assuming that others do too I now try now to add a little information to each image, either religious, cultural, historical or mythological. Whichever fits 🙂
LikeLike