Eight essential Chanukah facts

 

3 Olive oil was used to anoint everything sacred. Both King David and King Solomon were anointed with olive oil.

 

4 Oil’s importance in this festival led to celebrating with food cookied in oil such as latkes, doughnuts and kugel.

 

5 Dreidels were a subversive toy, designed when Jews were forbidden by their conquerors to study the Torah. The Hebrew characters stand for “A great miracle happened here”.

 

6 The holiday starts on 25 Kislev, which can range between late November and late December.

 

7 The original lamp had seven prongs, as specified by God to Moses in Exodus 25. One such is carved into the Arch of Titus in Rome.

 

8 You need a total of 44 candles to celebrate the eight days of Chanukah.