Eight Days Of Hannukah Begins

December 22, 2008 11:29 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The eight days of Hanukkah started Sunday at sundown with the lighting of the first night's candle and while millions of Jews around the world celebrated in their own homes, there was also a ceremony at the National Menorah on the Elipse near the White House in Washington, D.C.

Hanukkah commemorates a military victory over the Greeks when the waning supply of lamp oil at the temple lasted eight days instead one.

So each night of Hanukkah at sundown, one more candle is lit until on the eighth day they are all ablaze. The holiday, which ends this year on the afternoon of Dec. 29, is also called the Festival of lights.

Along with lighting candles people celebrate the occassion by eating potato latkes (pancakes) or other foods fried in oil. On the Elipse, people also listened to Cantors sing.

In addition to those traditions at Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, gifts are often exchanged in America, because the celebration falls around the time of Christmas.

Because of that, in some more secular Jewish homes, families put up what they call a "Hanukkah Bush," with some decorations. But more traditional and Orthodox Jews object to that, reminding that Hanukkah also celebrates a victory over Jews being pushed to adapt Greek traditions.

Although Hanukkah was not first celebrated until 400 years after the incident, many rich traditions have grown up around it. Along with potato latkes, there are also usually sufganiot (doughnuts) to eat. And children receive symbolic or real coins, known as Hanukkah gelt (foil wrapped milk chocolate in coin shape) and they play dreidel, a four-sided spinning top labeled with a letter of the Yiddish alphabet that forms the acronym "a great miracle happened there."