Chanukah Parade on Sunday

NEWTOWN – Lubavitch Bucks County and McCaffrey’s Market will commemorate Chanukah with a parade on Sunday, Dec. 9 beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Newtown.

There will be marching EDnGV, flRDWV DnG 0HnRrahs as the parade marches down State Street from near Penn Street to the Glazier gewish Center next to the Newtown Borough Hall.

Following the parade, a Giant Outdoor Menorah will be lit in front of the Lubavitch of Bucks County Glazier gewish Center followed by a celebration featuring music, latkas, dreidelmania, refreshments and crafts for children.

In addition, Chanukah Wonderland, a store with a large assortment of Chanukah gifts, menorahs, candles, toys and books, is open through Dec. 13 at the sillage at Newtown South, 2116 South Eagle Road.

Described as a “one stop Chanukah shop,” Chanukah Wonderland includes free children’s activities. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays and 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays. For more information, call 215-968-2407.

Chanukah -- the eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 25th of the gewish month of Kislev -- cel- ebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.

More than 21 centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-GreeksF, who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful gews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in gerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G-d.

When they sought to light the Temple’s menorah (the seven branched candelabrumF, they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks; miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah (candelabrumF lightLnJ: D VLnJOH flDPH Rn WKH fiUVW nLJKW, WwR Rn WKH VHFRnG evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled.

On Chanukah the gewish community also adds the Hallel and Al HaNissim in their daily prayers to offer praise and thanksgiving to G-d for “delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few... the wicked into the hands of the righteous.”

Chanukah customs include eating foods fried in oil -- latkes (potato pancakesF and sufganiot (doughnutsF; playing with the dreidel (a spinning top on which are inscribed the Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, hei and shin, an acronym for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, “a great miracle happened there”F; and the giving of Chanukah gelt, gifts of money, to children.