Is it Chanukah, Hanukkah or Hanukah? However you spell it, come celebrate with Elon’s Jewish community!
Elon Hillel’s annual (pre-)Hanukah Party and Shabbat program will be held on Friday, Nov. 22 from 5-6:30 p.m.
Enjoy hot fresh latkes (potato pancakes) and traditional sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) while you play dreydel games and try to win some gelt (chocolate coins). The event will feature a symbolic lighting of Hanukah menorahs.
The party is free and open to all students, faculty, staff and families.
The Jewish holiday of Hanukah begins this year on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 28, and continues for seven nights. Remarkably, the first night of Hanukah coincides with Thanksgiving this year, a confluence which last happened in 1861 (except that Thanksgiving wasn’t established until 1868). The next time the first day of Hanukah will happen on Thanksgiving — Thursday, Nov. 28 — will be in the year 79,811!
Hanukah is a Jewish festival commemorating the rededication and cleansing of the Temple after an uprising against the Syrians the second century BCE. When Jews, headed by the Maccabee family, went to light the Temple’s menorah, they found only one small flask of oil with which to light it. However, the light burned miraculously for eight days. On each night of Hanukah Jews light candles on a hanukkiah, the proper name for an eight-flamed menorah, to celebrate this miracle.
For more information, please contact Allie Roteman at aroteman@elon.edu.