Hanukkah
4 December 2026 · movable holiday — A little more light each evening. Happy Hanukkah!
Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival of lights. It recalls the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd century BCE. According to tradition, the temple menorah had oil for only one day, yet it burned for eight. That is why one more candle is lit each evening on the hanukkiah, a special lamp with nine places: eight for the days and one for the helper candle, the shamash. Families say blessings, sing, and eat foods fried in oil, such as doughnuts and potato latkes, and children play with the spinning top, the dreidel. Hanukkah begins on 25 Kislev in the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, so its date in the Gregorian calendar shifts every year, usually falling in late November or December. It comes in the dark nights near the winter solstice, around the time of the new Moon, and the candle flames resemble little stars. In 2026 it begins on the evening of 4 December.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of bright dots and lines, like a constellation: a nine-branched menorah (hanukkiah) drifting across the sky, its candle flames glowing as small twinkling stars
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