1. There are at least 44 candles in each box of traditional Hanukkah candles, enough for one person to light the hanukkiyah for eight nights. Some boxes include extra candles as they tend to break easily. Candles come in a variety of colors, wax types, and even scents. You can also fulfill the mitzvah of lighting the hanukkiyah with oil.

 

  1. The average 100-gram sufganiyah packs 400-600 calories. One potato latke has about 150 calories, and one chocolate coin has about 85 calories, depending on the size of the coin.

 

  1. Hanukkah is known as the Festival of lights and also the Feast of Dedication. And if that weren’t enough, the holiday also has a variety of transliterated English spellings: Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hannuka. (The Shofar chooses Hanukkah; end of discussion.)

 

  1. Israeli author/politician Avram Burg is said to have the largest dreidel collection in the world, counting more than 3,500. Each dreidel features four Hebrew letters: nun, gimel, hay and shin. The letters stand for the Hebrew phrase “A great miracle happened there.”

 

  1. Although Hanukkah is one of the best known and celebrated Jewish festivals, it is actually a minor holiday, according to religious tradition. Some say Hanukkah gained popularity in the late 1800s among American Jews because of the season in which it falls — usually around Christmas. Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. The corresponding Gregorian date varies. 

 

  1. The menorah is a seven-branched candelabra used in synagogues. The hanukkiyah is a nine-branched candelabra used during Hanukkah. Confusion sets in because the hanukkiyah can also be called a Hanukkah menorah. Whatever you call it, the “device” should have all candles or wicks at the same level, with only the shamash — the 9th, used for lighting the other eight — a bit higher.

 

  1. GPS navigation could help when organizing the hanukkiyah. Generally accepted is that you place the candles right to left, corresponding to the direction you read the Hebrew language. Confusion arises when lighting the candles; some prefer right to left, others left to right. You’re on your own here. [The Shofar editor chooses left to right; end of discussion.]

 

  1. Hanukkah made its first appearance at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in 1951, when Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion gave President Truman a menorah as a gift. In 1979, Jimmy Carter became the first American president to recognize the holiday publicly by speaking at a candle-lighting event hosted by Chabad Lubavitch. President George H.W. Bush attended a Hanukkah party for staff in the Executive Office Building in 1991. Two years later, President Clinton hosted a candle-lighting ceremony in the White House with his staff. The first official White House Hanukkah party was held on Dec. 10, 2001. President George W. Bush borrowed a 100-year-old hanukkiyah from the Jewish Museum in New York for the event. Since then, the White House Hanukkah party has been an annual event.

 

  1. The story of Hanukkah is the story of the Maccabees, a small band of Jewish fighters who liberated the Land of Israel from the Syrian Greeks who occupied it. Under the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Syrian Greeks sought to impose their Hellenistic culture on the land and its people. By 167 BCE, Antiochus had intensified his campaign by defiling the Temple in Jerusalem and banning Jewish practice. The Maccabees — led by the five sons of the priest Mattathias — waged a three-year campaign that culminated in the cleaning and rededication of the Temple in the village of Modi’in. It was here that the miracle of the single day’s supply of sacred oil burned for eight days.