Hanukkah is the eight-day-long Jewish festival of lights that commemorates the story of the Maccabees reclaiming their Holy Temple after a three year war with the Greeks. To celebrate their victory they lit an oil lamp and, even though they only had enough oil for one day, the lamp miraculously burned for eight days and nights. 

Now when the celebration comes round every year it’s tradition to light the candles on a Hanukkah menorah, or Hanukkiah, on each night of the festival. 

Hanukkah is one of the more well known Jewish holidays, but it isn’t mentioned in the Torah and is termed a ‘minor’ holiday because, unlike Rosh Hashana or Passover, it doesn’t require major restrictions on people’s behavior and eating habits.

However, there are culinary traditions that go hand in hand with the celebration, such as oily food eaten as a symbol of the miracle oil that burned for eight days. 

The most common way to spell the name of the holiday is Chanukah or Hanukkah but there are actually 16 different ways it can been transliterated into English because of the guttural “hecht” sound of the first Hebrew letter of the word.

A Hannukkiah holds nine candles, one for each night of the festival and one that’s raised above the rest. The ninth higher candle, known as the shamash, is lit first then used to light the others. Each candle traditionally burns for at least half an hour.

There are at least 44 candles in each box of Hanukkah candles. On the first night, only one candle (plus the shamash) is lit, on the second night two are lit, and so on until the Hanukkiah is fully lit on the final night.