Is Hanukkah a major holiday?

Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which falls on Dec. 22 this year. But because the Hebrew calendar is on a different cycle than the Gregorian calendar, the holiday can begin anywhere from late November through December. Households gather together each night to light today’s menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum, while saying special blessings. The shamash, or “attendant” candle, is lit first and used to light one other candle on the first night of Hanukkah, with one more candle added every night. Dreidel, a game of chance with a spinning top, is often played after the candles are lit, with players seeking to win a small number of coins, nuts, candies, or trinkets. Instead of actual money, foil-covered chocolate coins called gelt are often used. Each side of the top is inscribed with a Hebrew letter— nun, gimel, hei, and shin— with the letters standing for “a great miracle happened there.”

For most of Jewish history, Hanukkah was considered a minor festival. The Hanukkah story does not appear in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, which is the basis of the Christian Old Testament. Unlike biblically established holidays such as Passover and Yom Kippur, Hanukkah has no special dietary restrictions, and work is still permitted. The book of 1 Maccabees, which was written around 100 BCE, tells the story of the Maccabean Revolt and the eight-day celebration of the rededication of the Temple. But it does not describe the

Hanukkah began to take on more importance in the mid to late 19th century, amid large-scale Jewish immigration to the U.S. Many Jewish immigrants embraced American customs as a way of fitting in, including Christmas, which during the Victorian Era had begun its transformation into the highly commercialized holiday we know today. Alarmed by the number of Jewish families decorating Christmas trees and waiting for Santa Claus, religious leaders started to play up Hanukkah as an alternative. Cincinnatibased Reform Rabbis Max Lilienthal and Isaac M. Wise are credited with popularizing Hanukkah by developing special Hanukkah synagogue services focused on children, with candle-lighting, songs, and gift-giving, which they promoted in the Jewish press. “We must do something, too, to enliven our children,” Lilienthal wrote in an editorial in 1876. “[They] shall have a grand and glorious Chanukah festival nicer than any Christmas festival.”

Hanukkah sparks a seasonal debate in America over whether it’s become much like Christmas. Kitschy products such as the Elf on a Shelf have found counterparts in the Mensch on a Bench and the Maccabee on the Mantel. Kosher foods manufacturer Manischewitz sells Hanukkah House kits that use vanilla cookies instead of gingerbread and come with blue and white icing. The Hallmark Channel this year added two Hanukkah-themed movies to its lineup of nonstop Christmas fare. “In New York you cannot go into a shop without seeing a menorah next to the Christmas tree, so people tend to think they are related, and Hanukkah is easily obscured by the holiday spirit,” said Adam Goldmann, a freelance journalist now living in Germany. “Here, I feel free to enjoy Hanukkah for what it really is, a secondary Jewish holiday. There’s no commercial aspect whatsoever.”