Why do some people say Hanukkah while others say Chanukah? These are two different English spellings and both are correct. The Hebrew word for the festival of lights, Hanukkah Chanukah, consists of five Hebrew characters opening with the consonant het (chet). This letter is not the same as the English letter "h" (as in house). It is also not the same as "ch" (as in child). It is a Hebrew guttural sound that has no precise equivalent in English.
Hanukkah, the “Festival of Lights,” starts on the 25th day of the Jewish calendar month of Kislev and lasts for eight days and nights. With blessings, games, and festive foods, Hanukkah celebrates the triumphs, both religious and military, of ancient Jewish heroes.
In the past, Hanukkah was a relatively minor holiday in the Jewish year in the United States. The holiday's religious significance has been less than Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover, and Shavu'ot. It is roughly equivalent to Purim in significance. However, in modern times, its closeness to Christmas has brought greater attention to Hanukkah and its gift-giving, Hanukkah party traditions. Amid the ever-growing flood of Christmas advertising, it may seem especially fitting that the Hanukkah story tells of Jewish culture surviving in a non-Jewish world.
The most significant religious observance related to the Hanukkah is the lighting of candles. The candles are arranged in a candelabrum called a menorah (or sometimes called a chanukkiah) that holds nine candles and a shammus (servant) at a different height. On the first night, one candle is placed at the far right. The shammus candle is lit and three berakhot (blessings) are recited. After reciting the blessings, the first candle is then lit using the shammus candle, and the shammus candle is placed in its holder. The candles are allowed to burn out on its own after a minimum of one half hour.
Each night, another candle is added from right to left and are lit from left to right. On the eighth night, all nine candles are lit. On nights after the first night, only the first two blessings are recited. The third blessing, she-hekhianu is only recited on the first night of holidays. The Chanukkah candles are for pleasure only, and they may not be uses for any productive purpose.
At the Hanukkah party celebration, It is traditional to eat fried foods on Chanukkah because of the significance of oil to the holiday. Among Ashkenazic Jews, this usually includes latkes. Gift-giving is not a traditional part of the holiday, but has been added in places where Jews have a lot of contact with Christians, as a way of dealing with the children's jealousy of their Christian friends. It is extremely unusual for Jews to give Chanukkah gifts at the Hanukkah party to anyone other than their own young children. The only traditional gift of the holiday is "gelt," small amounts of money.
Another tradition at the Hanukkah party is playing Dreidel, a gambling game played with a square top. Most people play for matchsticks, pennies, candy or chocolate coins. This game’s traditional is that during the time of Antiochus' oppression, those who wanted to study Torah would conceal their activity by playing gambling games with a top whenever an official or inspector was within sight. A Dreidel is marked with four Hebrew letters, Nun, Gimmel, Heh and Shin. These letters stand for the Hebrew phrase "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham", a great miracle happened there, referring to the miracle of the oil.
The letters also stand for the Yiddish words nit (nothing), gantz (all), halb (half) and shtell (put), which are the rules of the game! There are some variations in the way people play the game, but one version calls for everyone puts in one coin. A person spins the Dreidel. If it lands n Nun, nothing happens; on Gimmel (or, as we called it as kids, "gimme!"), you get the whole pot; on Heh, you get half of the pot; and on Shin, you put one in. When the pot is empty, everybody puts one in. Keep playing until one person has everything. Then redivide it, because nobody likes a poor winner.
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