Happy Hanukkah! The Festival of Lights begins today.

[[[image-0 medium right]]] This evening, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins, and continues for eight nights and days until the evening of Wednesday 20^th December.

Also known as ‘The Festival of Lights’, Hanukkah commemorates a great Jewish victory, and the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 167BC – where candles burned for eight nights even though they only had enough sacred oil for one night. This is known as the ‘miracle of the oil’.

Hanukkah is observed by the lighting of candles in a nine branched candelabra called a ‘, lighting an additional candle each day. Children play dreidel (a game played with a four sided spinning top), and people eat foods fried or baked in oil to commemorate the miraculous oil.

The ebook “Jewish Soul Food : Traditional Fare and What It Means” gives both the recipes and the history and symbolism of traditional Jewish foods, including the Hanukkah dishes of doughnuts and latkes.