Editing Hanukkah (section)

== Customs ==

=== Music ===
{{Main|Hanukkah music}}
[[File:מעוז צור ישועתי שירי חנוכה תווים רדומסק מבצע בעל התפילה יונתן שטנצל hanukkah songs maoz tzur yeshuati.pdf|thumb|upright|[[Radomsk]] Hasidic [[Ma'oz Tzur]].]]
Hanukkah songs (in Hebrew except where indicated) include "''[[Ma'oz Tzur]]''" (Rock of Ages), "''Latke'le Latke'le''" ([[Yiddish]]: "Little [[Latke]], Little Latke"), "''Hanukkiah Li Yesh''" ("I Have a Hanukkah Menorah"), "''[[Ocho Kandelikas]]''" ([[Judeo-Spanish]]: "Eight Little Candles"), "''Kad Katan''" ("A Small Jug"), "''S'vivon Sov Sov Sov''" ("Dreidel, Spin and Spin"), "''Haneirot Halolu''" ("These Candles Which We Light"), "''Mi Yimalel''" ("Who Can Retell") and "''Ner Li, Ner Li''" ("I have a Candle").

Among the best known songs in English-speaking countries are "[[Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel]]"<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bussongs.com/songs/dreidel-dreidel-dreidel |title=Chanukah – Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel |quote=As one of the most famous Chanukah songs... |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> and "[[Oh Chanukah]]".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.8notes.com/scores/14871.asp |title=Oh Chanukah (Jewish Traditional) sheet music for Trombone |quote=Oh Chanukah (or Oj Chanukah) is a very popular modern English Chanukah song. |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

In the [[Nadvorna (Hasidic dynasty)|Nadvorna]] [[Hasidic]] dynasty, it is customary for the rebbes to play violin after the menorah is lit.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Greenberg |first1=Shlomo |date=15 December 2012 |title=Belz resumed practice of playing violin at candle lighting |url=http://www.bhol.co.il/news/742083 |access-date=6 October 2018 |website=Behadrey Haredim}}</ref>

[[Penina Moise]]'s Hannukah Hymn published in the 1842 ''Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations'' was instrumental in the beginning of Americanization of Hanukkah.<ref name=Ashton>{{cite book|title=Hanukkah in America: A History |first=Dianne |last=Ashton |publisher=NYU Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4798-5895-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISIrAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 |pages=42–46 |quote=Throughout the nineteenth century some Jews tried various ways to adapt Judaism to American life. As they began looking for images to help understand and explain what a proper response to American Challenges might be, Hanukkah became ripe for reinvention. In Charleston, South Carolina, one group of Jews made Hanukkah into a time for serious religious reflexion that responded to their evangelical Protestant milieu...[Moise's] poem gave Hanukkah a place in the emerging religious style of American culture that was dominated by the language of individualism and personal conscience derived from both Protestantism and the Enlightenment. However, neither the Talmud nor the Shulchan Aruch identifies Hanukkah as a special occasion to ask for the forgiveness of sins.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Parker |first=Adam |date=18 December 2011 |title=Celebrating Hanukkah |url=http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20111218/ARCHIVES/312189902 |url-status=dead |work=The Post and Courier |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150105131943/http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20111218/ARCHIVES/312189902 |archive-date=5 January 2015 |access-date=6 October 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Ashton|first=Dianne|title=Quick to the Party: The Americanization of Hanukkah and Southern Jewry|journal=Southern Jewish History|volume=12|pages=1–38}}</ref>

=== Foods ===
[[File:Classic Hanukkah sufganiyot.JPG|thumb|[[Sufganiyot]]/[[doughnut]]s filled with strawberry jelly]]
There is a custom of eating foods fried or baked in oil (preferably [[olive oil]]) to commemorate the miracle of a small flask of oil keeping the [[Second Temple]]'s [[Menorah (Temple)|Menorah]] alight for eight days.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pjvoice.com/v7/7900food.html |title=Chanukah is upon us |publisher=The Philadelphia Jewish Voice |date=7 January 2006 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> Traditional foods include [[potato pancake]]s, known as ''[[Latke|latkes]]'' in [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]], especially among [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] families. Sephardi, [[History of Jews in Poland|Polish]], and [[Israeli Jews|Israeli]] families eat jam-filled [[doughnut]]s ({{langx|yi|פּאָנטשקעס}} ''[[Pączki|pontshkes]]''), [[Buñuelos|bimuelos]] (fritters) and [[sufganiyot]] which are [[Deep frying|deep-fried]] in oil. [[Italkim]] and [[Hungarian Jews]] traditionally eat cheese pancakes known as "cassola" or "[[cheese latkes]]".<ref>{{cite news |last=Nathan |first=Joan |date=12 December 2006 |title=Hanukkah Q&A |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/dining/13hanukkahqa.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

Latkes are not popular in Israel, having been largely replaced by sufganiyot due to local economic factors, convenience and the influence of trade unions.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jeffay, Nathan |title=Why Israel is a latke-free zone |url=https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/food/why-israel-is-a-latke-free-zone-1.13067 |work=thejc.com |date=17 December 2009}}</ref> Bakeries in Israel have popularized many new types of fillings for ''sufganiyot'' besides the traditional strawberry jelly filling, including chocolate cream, vanilla cream, caramel, cappuccino and others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gur |first=Jana |year=2008 |title=The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey |publisher=Schocken |pages=238–243 |isbn=978-0-8052-1224-2 }}</ref> In recent years, downsized, "mini" sufganiyot containing half the calories of the regular, 400-to-600-calorie version, have become popular.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Love-me-dough |title=Love Me Dough |last1=Minsberg |first1=Tali |last2=Lidman |first2=Melanie |date=10 December 2009 |access-date=6 October 2018 |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref>

[[File:LatkeFry.JPG|thumb|Potato [[latke]] frying in hot [[olive oil]].]]
Rabbinic literature also records a tradition of eating cheese and other dairy products during Hanukkah.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103095/jewish/Why-All-the-Oil-and-Cheese.htm |title= Why All the Oil and Cheese (and Potatoes)? |last=Soloveitchik |first=Benyamina |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> This custom, as mentioned above, commemorates the heroism of [[Book of Judith|Judith]] during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and reminds us that women also played an important role in the events of Hanukkah.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/103019/jewish/The-Story-of-Yehudit.htm |title= The Story of Yehudit: The Woman Who Saved the Day |website=Chabad.org |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> The [[deuterocanonical]] book of Judith (Yehudit or Yehudis in Hebrew), which is not part of the [[Tanakh]], records that [[Holofernes]], an Assyrian general, had surrounded the village of Bethulia as part of his campaign to conquer Judea. After intense fighting, the water supply of the Jews was cut off and the situation became desperate. Judith, a pious widow, told the city leaders that she had a plan to save the city. Judith went to the Assyrian camps and pretended to surrender. She met Holofernes, who was smitten by her beauty. She went back to his tent with him, where she plied him with cheese and wine. When he fell into a drunken sleep, Judith beheaded him and escaped from the camp, taking the severed head with her (the [[Judith Beheading Holofernes|beheading of Holofernes by Judith]] has historically been a popular theme in art). When Holofernes' soldiers found his corpse, they were overcome with fear; the Jews, on the other hand, were emboldened and launched a successful counterattack. The town was saved, and the Assyrians defeated.<ref>[[Mishna Berurah]] 670:2:10</ref>

[[Roast goose]] has historically been a traditional Hanukkah food among Eastern European and American Jews, although the custom has declined in recent decades.<ref>
* {{cite book |title=Eat and be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food |last=Cooper |first=John |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-87668-316-3 |publisher=[[Jason Aronson]] |page=192 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ld7fuK6peH8C}}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/23/garden/hanukkah-s-a-coming-geese-are-getting-fat.html |title=Hanukkah's a-Coming: Geese Are Getting Fat |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |work=The New York Times |date=23 November 1994 |access-date=6 October 2018}}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/goose-a-hanukkah-tradition.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/opinion/goose-a-hanukkah-tradition.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |title=Goose: A Hanukkah Tradition |last=Yoskowitz |first=Jeffrey |work=The New York Times |date=24 December 2016 |access-date=6 October 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

[[Indian Jews]] traditionally consume [[gulab jamun]], fried dough balls soaked in a sweet syrup, similar to [[teiglach]] or [[bimuelos]], as part of their Hanukkah celebrations. 

[[Italian Jews]] eat fried chicken, cassola (a ricotta cheese latke almost similar to a cheesecake), and ''fritelle de riso par Hanukkah'' (a fried sweet rice pancake). 

[[Romanian Jews]] eat [[pasta latke]]s as a traditional Hanukkah dish.

[[Syrian Jews]] consume [[Kibbet Yatkeen]], a dish made with pumpkin and bulgur wheat similar to [[latkes]], as well as their own version of [[keftes de prasa]] spiced with allspice and cinnamon.<ref>{{cite web |title=8 Foods You Didn't Know Jews Eat During Hanukkah |url=https://forward.com/scribe/356515/8-foods-you-didnt-know-jews-eat-during-hanukkah/ |website=My Jewish Learning |date=8 December 2016 |access-date=8 December 2019}}</ref>

=== Dreidel ===
{{Main|Dreidel}}
[[File:Colorful dreidels2.JPG|thumb|[[Dreidel]]s in a Jerusalem market]]
After lighting the candles, it is customary to play (or spin) the [[dreidel]]. The dreidel, or ''sevivon'' in Hebrew, is a four-sided spinning top that children play with during Hanukkah. Each side is imprinted with a Hebrew letter which is an abbreviation for the Hebrew words {{lang|he|נס גדול היה שם|rtl=yes}} ({{lang|he-Latn|'''N'''es '''G'''adol '''H'''aya '''S'''ham}}, "A great miracle happened there"), referring to the miracle of the oil that took place in the [[Temple in Jerusalem|Beit Hamikdash]]. The fourth side of some dreidels sold in Israel are inscribed with the letter {{lang|he|פ|rtl=yes}} ''([[Pe (Semitic letter)|Pe]])'', rendering the acronym {{lang|he|נס גדול היה פה|rtl=yes}} ({{lang|he-Latn|'''N'''es '''G'''adol '''H'''aya '''P'''o}}, "A great miracle happened here"), referring to the fact that the miracle occurred in the land of Israel, although this is a relatively recent{{when|date=December 2019}} innovation. Stores in [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] neighborhoods sell the traditional ''Shin'' dreidels as well, because they understand "there" to refer to the Temple and not the entire Land of Israel, and because the Hasidic Masters ascribe significance to the traditional letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-origin-of-the-dreidel/ |title=The Surprising Origin of the Dreidel |last=Golinknin |first=Rabbi David |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-gyration-nation-the-weird-ancient-history-of-the-dreidel-1.5344849 |title=Gyration Nation: The Weird Ancient History of the Dreidel |last=Rosenberg |first=Anat |date=14 December 2014 |access-date=6 October 2018|newspaper=Haaretz }}</ref>

=== Hanukkah gelt ===
{{Main|Hanukkah gelt}}[[File:Chocolate-Gold-Coins.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hanukkah gelt|Chocolate gelt]]]]
[[Chanukkah gelt]] ([[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] for "Chanukkah money"), known in Israel by the Hebrew translation {{Langx|he|דְּמֵי חֲנֻכָּה|dmei Hanukkah}}, is often distributed to children during the festival of Hanukkah. The giving of Hanukkah gelt also adds to the holiday excitement. The amount is usually in small coins, although grandparents or relatives may give larger sums. The tradition of giving Chanukah ''gelt'' dates back to a long-standing East European custom of children presenting their teachers with a small sum of money at this time of year as a token of gratitude. One [[minhag]] favors the fifth night of Hanukkah for giving Hanukkah gelt.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schechter.edu/why-do-we-give-hanukkah-gelt-and-hanukkah-presents/ |title=Why Do We Give Hanukkah Gelt and Hanukkah Presents? |last=Golinkin |first=Rabbi Prof. David |date=19 December 2014 |access-date=6 October 2018 |publisher=The Schecter Institutes}}</ref> Unlike the other nights of Hanukkah, the fifth does not ever fall on the Shabbat, hence never conflicting with the [[Halachic]] injunction against handling money on the [[Shabbat]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Lebowitz |first1=Rabbi Aryeh |date=11 December 2005 |title=Chanukah Gelt and Gifts |url=http://download.yutorah.org/2015/1083/846556/d-varim-hayotzim-min-halev-miketz.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229100536/http://download.yutorah.org/2015/1083/846556/d-varim-hayotzim-min-halev-miketz.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-29 |url-status=live |magazine=Dvarim Hayotzim Min Halev |type=PDF |volume=17 |issue=6 |page=3 |access-date=6 October 2018 |quote="In fact, the Orchos Rabeinu in cheilek ג teaches that the Steipler Gaon maintained the minhag of giving out Chanukah gelt davka on the fifth night of Chanukah. Why specifically the fifth night? Answers the Orchos Rabeinu, since the fifth night is the only night that cannot coincide with Shabbos." }}</ref>

=== Hanukkah in the White House ===
{{Main|White House Hanukkah Party}}
[[File:Truman receives menorah.jpg|thumb|Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion|Ben-Gurion]] (center) gives President [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] (left) a Hanukkah menorah as ambassador [[Abba Eban]] watches in the [[Oval Office]]]]
The earliest Hanukkah link with the White House occurred in 1951 when Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] presented United States President [[Harry Truman]] with a Hanukkah menorah. In 1979 President [[Jimmy Carter]] took part in the first public Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony of the [[National Menorah]] held across the White House lawn. In 1989, President [[George H. W. Bush]] displayed a menorah in the White House. In 1993, President [[Bill Clinton]] invited a group of schoolchildren to the [[Oval Office]] for a small ceremony.<ref name="whitehouse" />

The [[United States Postal Service]] has released several [[Hanukkah stamps|Hanukkah-themed]] postage stamps. In 1996, the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a 32 cent Hanukkah stamp as a [[joint issue]] with [[Israel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfa-archive/1996/pages/israeli-american%20hanukkah%20stamp.aspx |title=Israeli-American Hanukkah Stamp |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date=22 October 1996 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> In 2004, after eight years of reissuing the menorah design, the USPS issued a dreidel design for the Hanukkah stamp. The dreidel design was used through 2008. In 2009 a Hanukkah stamp was issued with a design featured a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2009/pb22267/html/info1_005.htm |title=Stamp Announcement 09-47: Hanukkah |first=United States Postal |last=Service |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> In 2008, President [[George W. Bush]] held an official Hanukkah reception in the White House where he linked the occasion to the 1951 gift by using that menorah for the ceremony, with a grandson of Ben-Gurion and a grandson of Truman lighting the candles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/12/05/archives-hanukkah-white-house |title=From the Archives: Hanukkah at the White House |date=5 December 2013 |last=Donius |first=Susan K. |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

In December 2014, two Hanukkah celebrations were held at the White House. The [[White House]] commissioned a menorah made by students at the Max Rayne school in Israel and invited two of its students to join U.S. President [[Barack Obama]] and First Lady [[Michelle Obama]] as they welcomed over 500 guests to the celebration. The students' school in Israel had been subjected to arson by extremists. President Obama said these "students teach us an important lesson for this time in our history. The light of hope must outlast the fires of hate. That's what the Hanukkah story teaches us. It's what our young people can teach us – that one act of faith can make a miracle, that love is stronger than hate, that peace can triumph over conflict."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hand-in-hand-schools-menorah-lights-up-white-house-hanukkah-party/ |title=Arab–Jewish school's menorah lights up White House Hanukkah party |date=18 December 2014 |last=Ghert-Zand |first=Renee |website=TimesOfIsrael.com |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref> Rabbi [[Angela Warnick Buchdahl]], in leading prayers at the ceremony commented on the how special the scene was, asking the President if he believed America's founding fathers could possibly have pictured that a female Asian-American rabbi would one day be at the White House leading Jewish prayers in front of the African-American president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/opinion/211168/a-most-inspiring-hanukkah-at-the-white-house/ |title=A Most Inspiring Hanukkah at the White House |website=Forward.com |date=18 December 2014 |last=Eisner |first=Jane |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>