Late Hanukkah 2022, Jews celebrate heavenly Chanukah with soothing music playlist

Hanukkah is called Chanukah in Hebrew. Even while many people spend the period between Thanksgiving and the beginning of December preoccupied with thoughts of the upcoming Christmas season, another significant festival is just around the corner: Hanukkah.

Adam Sandler’s song from the hit show “Saturday Night Live” refers to the holiday as “eight wild nights,” but the festival is about much more than simply burning candles in a menorah and playing with a dreidel.

It is true that Jewish people all over the globe celebrate Hanukkah, which may also be called “Chanukah” and is more widely known as the Festival of Lights. Chanukah is observed for a total of eight days.

The origin of the term “Hanukkah,” which comes from the Hebrew word for “dedication” and is pronounced as “kha-nu-kah,” may be traced back to the reason for celebrating this holiday: the re-dedication of the Holy Temple.

On the Hebrew calendar, the festival of Chanukah starts on the evening before Kislev 25, which typically takes place either in late November or early December.

Hanukkah 2022 dates

This year, the celebrations occur from the 18th to the 26th of December, which is a few weeks later than it did in 2021 when the event ran from the 28th of November to the 6th of December.

According to the Chabad-Lubavitch of Wisconsin, the celebration may be traced back to the second century BCE, when a tiny number of Jews recaptured their holy temple in Jerusalem. This event marked the beginning of the festival.

When the Jews took back control of the temple, there was barely enough oil to last for one night. On the other hand, the oil lasted for a total of eight nights.

Hanukkah Candles

Andrea Alcabes, Executive Director of the I.J. and Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center, told Nexstar’s KTVX that the festival is commemorated by lighting candles, with an extra candle being lit for each of the eight nights that the event is observed.

The lunar calendar, not the solar calendar, is used to determine the dates of Hanukkah, as explained by Rabbi Hannah Wallick, Vice President of Leadership and Global Initiatives for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

Due to the fact that the Jewish calendar and the solar calendar are not in sync with one another, Jewish festivals move around on the solar calendar.

There are certain years in which Chanukah does not begin until the 27th of December.

One candle on Chanukah, also known as the “menorah,” is lit each night. According to Wallick, a menorah contains seven branches for candles, but a Hanukkiah has eight, plus one extra that carries an assistance candle that is used to ignite the other candles in the structure.

Menorahs are often displayed in the windows of Jewish households as well as in other public venues such as shopping centres, parks, and the lawns of municipal buildings.

Hanukkah music playlist

One more thing that Adam Sandler got right: During Chanukah, it is customary to play with a dreidel, which is a four-sided spinning top with four Hebrew letters making an acronym of “nes gadol hayah sham,” which translates to “a great miracle occurred there,” according to the Chabad-Lubavitch.

There are more songs about the Jewish festival than merely “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,” as Adam Sandler demonstrated on an episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

In addition to having written “Puff the Magic Dragon,” the quartet Peter, Paul, and Mary are also responsible for the song “Light One Candle,” which is a Chanukah song.

Other songs on the album include “Left to Right” by Michelle Citrin and “Hanukkah on Hanukkah” by Erran Baron Cohen, who is the brother of Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian best known for his role in the film Borat.

Hanukkah blessings

Chanukah is not one of Judaism’s most important holidays, even though it takes place around the same time as important holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving for other religions.

People are more conscious of it since it occurs during a festive holiday season for other religious traditions, as Wallick notes. “It does fall in an auspicious holiday season for other religious traditions.”