1. Hanukkah is the celebration of two miracles.

One miracle is that Jews were able to win the fight against the Greeks, who were led by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Jews that fought were called the Maccabees, and they were led into battle by Judah Maccabee.

The second miracle was about oil. When the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, they went to their temple to light some candles and pray to God. However, when they walked in, they only found enough oil for the light to last one day. The great miracle was that the oil actually lasted for eight days!! These miracles are the reasons that Jews celebrate Hanukkah.

2. The menorah is not only for show.

Menorahs have special meanings. For each of the eight nights of Hanukkah you light one candle, until all the candles are lit. The candle in the middle of a menorah is called the shamash. It is used to light the other candles, but it is lit every night of Hanukkah. The other candles get lit from right to left, starting with the one the farthest to the right, and adding a new one each night.

3. A dreidel is not just a top with squiggly lines on it.

Dreidel is a fun game for Jews and their friends to play on Hanukkah. It is a rectangular top, and on each side it has a different Hebrew letter. The Hebrew letters that you would see on a dreidel outside of Israel are nun (נ), gimel (ג), hay (ה), and shin (ש). Those letters stand for the sentence נס גדול היה שם, or, in English, “A great miracle happened there.” (That is referring to the Hanukkah miracles mentioned in the first part of this article.) In Israel, the letters you would find on a dreidel are nun (נ), gimel (ג), hay (ה), pey (פ). That means נס גדול היה פו, or, in English, “A great miracle happened here.”

4. There are traditional foods for Hanukkah!!

One of the miracles of Hanukkah was that one jar of oil lit a candle for eight days! To celebrate this, the Jewish people eat lots of fried food during the Festival of Lights. Some really traditional foods for Hanukkah are latkes and sufganiyot. Latkes, also known as potato pancakes, are like fried hash browns. Sufganiyot, which are like jelly donuts, are a delicious, sweet option for your Hanukkah dessert.

5. There is no right way to spell Hanukkah in English.

Hanukkah is actually a Hebrew word, spelled חנוכה. In this article it is spelled Hanukkah, but only because that is the only spelling spell check says is right. Some other spellings are Chanukah, Hannukah, Channuka, Chanukka, and Hannukka. There are many more spellings too, but these are very popular because they have eight letters. There is a tradition of using eight letters when spelling Hanukkah because the oil lasted for eight nights. But really, you can spell Hanukkah any way you want.