By Jill Morgenstern

If you aren’t Jewish, you may want to know more about the eight-day celebration known as Chanukah. Here are some answers to questions you or your children may have:

1. What’s the deal with the spelling (or lack thereof?) Chanukah or Hanukkah is a Hebrew word. That means the word is spelled with letters that are not in English. Some people have preferred spellings, but there is no correct spelling. I like to spell it as many ways as I can in a single document, both as a personal challenge and because I have a better chance of finding it in a document search on my computer. Some people say any spelling is correct as long as it has eight letters to represent the eight nights.

2. Why does the holiday change dates? Chanukah is celebrated on the 25th day of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. Because the Hebrew calendar measures lunar months, the date of Chanukah changes from year to year.

3. What are we not eating at this time? Back when Greece ruled Israel, there was “a bad king” named Antiochus. He told Jewish people that they had to eat pigs. Pigs are not kosher, meaning it’s against traditional Jewish law to eat them. There are a lot of things people who keep kosher are not supposed to eat, but for whatever reason, even people who don’t keep kosher sometimes draw the line at pig.

4. What are we eating at this time? The answer to that question begins with a little history.

Judah Maccabee and the Maccabees fought and fought the Greeks. The Greeks destroyed the Jewish temple and ruined all the holy oil. Obviously, the Jews lived. But they could only find one tiny bit of oil to last one day. Miraculously the oil lasted for eight days, long enough to make new oil and to bring about an eight-night long festival of lights.

Or, that’s the simple version at any rate.

So what are we eating? Lots of stuff with oil. Because the oil lasted for eight days.
The two most well known Chanukah foods are potato latkes and sufganiot.

Latkes are what many people call potato pancakes. There’s not a big difference between a latke and a potato pancake, except that a truly traditional latke has chicken fat in it. Sufganiot is basically a jelly donut.

5. Why does my kid always leave school singing about a dreidel? There are plenty of Hanukkah songs. Tons of them. But for whatever reason, every public school I’ve ever taught in or had a child in seems to only know one song, about the dreidel.

Dreidel is a Hanukkah game involving a spinning top and what basically amounts to gambling for candy.

Each letter on the dreidel is part of the acronym for “A Great Miracle Happened There.” The game is often played with gelt (chocolate coins).

6. What about presents? My understanding is that presents are only a big deal in places where Hanukkah “competes” for attention with Christmas. Some families do other special activities each night instead of presents. A friend and former coworker of mine plays dreidel with a different type of candy each night.

7. What’s that menorah thing? The commandment for Chanukkah is to light the menorah. Most people have probably at least seen a menorah. It holds eight candles, one for each night, and also a shamash, or helper candle. On the first night, one candle plus the shamash is lit; on the second night, two candles, and so on. This is done in celebration of the temple oil having lasted eight days. 

Jill Morgenstern is a Jewish Sunday school teacher. She has four children and a master’s degree in teaching reading.