Hanukkah

🎉 🇮🇱 Israel • December 7, 2026

Days off: 8 days • Falls on Monday

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Hanukkah — holiday, Israel (December 7, 2026)

Hanukkah Description

The eight-day Festival of Lights commemorating the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire and the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE. Each evening, Jewish families light an additional candle on the hanukkiah (nine-branched menorah), placing it in windows for public display. Traditional foods fried in oil — sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) and levivot (potato latkes) — are eaten everywhere. Children play dreidel and receive gelt (money or chocolate coins). Schools are closed for the full eight days, though government offices and many businesses operate. Public spaces and streets glow with hanukkiah displays, and Jerusalem's Old City is particularly beautiful during this winter festival.

📜 History & Origins

Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Jewish Maccabees, led by Judah Maccabee, over the Hellenistic Seleucid king Antiochus IV, who had desecrated the Second Temple and outlawed Jewish practice. In 164 BCE the Maccabees recaptured Jerusalem, rededicated the Temple, and, according to the Talmud, found only a single cruse of ritually pure oil to light the menorah — enough for one day yet miraculously burning for eight, until fresh oil could be prepared. The eight-day festival enshrines that miracle.

🎉 How It's Celebrated

On each of the eight nights, families light the hanukkiah — a nine-branched candelabrum in which one candle is added each evening using the shamash (helper) candle — and place it in a window or doorway to 'publicize the miracle.' Children spin the dreidel, a four-sided top whose letters (Nun, Gimel, Hay, Shin) stand for 'Nes Gadol Haya Sham' — 'a great miracle happened there.' Schools close for the entire holiday, and public menorah lightings, concerts, and torch relays from Modi'in to Jerusalem are organized nationwide.

🍽️ Traditional Foods

Foods fried in oil dominate the menu in memory of the Temple miracle. Sufganiyot — round doughnuts filled with strawberry jam and dusted with sugar — are sold by the millions in bakeries and coffee chains, while levivot (potato latkes) crisp in pans at Ashkenazi dinner tables. Sephardic and Mizrahi families add bimuelos (honey-soaked fritters) and other oil-fried sweets.

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