What should I know about Hanukkah?

here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

Candice, what you should do is read books by Solomon Zeitlin to understand the history of the Second Commonwealth. At the same time you may wish to understand the relationship of the Gaeco-Persian Wars to the politics in the area and how Roman later became involved for its own advantage, but could never conquer the Parthean Empire.

The story goes: Once upon a time, the Assyrians decided to take over Israel. So they did. The king, Antiochus, decided that Judaism should be outlawed. A bunch of Jews were pretty angry about that and rebelled, led by Judah the Maccabee. The group of rebels was called the Maccabees because of this. Of course, King Antiochus didn't like having a rebellion, so he sent his army to crush the rebellion. He failed, and the real miracle of Hanukkah is that such a small army defeated such a big one - and that's why we celebrate. When the Maccabees finally drove out the Assyrians, they went back to the Holy Temple to find that it had been desecrated - it had been used as a pig barn, the Assyrians had held drunken parties in there, and it was basically nasty. So the Maccabees set about cleaning it up. After all, it was the Temple. One of the things that is supposed to happen in a temple is that a light is always supposed to be lit. Some versions of the story say that they found only one days' worth of oil, and it lasted for the whole 8 days that it would take to make more oil, and that's why Hanukkah lasts for 8 days. More likely, the rebellion had taken place during Sukkot (another 8 day holiday) and they decided to celebrate it late, then when the next year came around, they had a new holiday. During Hanukkah, we light one candle in a "chanukiah," a 9-branched candelabra, along with the shamash, or head candle. You light that one first, and then use it to light the other ones. There are some blessings that go along with lighting the candles. Dreidl is a game that we play during Hanukkah. It's a gambling game, and if you want to know more, look it up. We use gelt, or chocolate coins, as the "money," so the kids can play and eat the chocolate. My aunt recently sent me some gelt just to eat in a care package. It's pretty tasty cheap chocolate. 50 cents a bag. We also eat latkes, which are the greasiest, most wonderful food on the planet (after falafel), made of potatoes and onions and deep-fried. Donuts are a common food as well, because they're deep fried and remind us of the oil. To quote A Rugrat's Chanukah: "The real miracle of Chanukah is that these things have been clogging our people's arteries for thousands of years - and yet, we survive!" That was the only Hanukkah special in existence for us poor Jewish kids. The rest were about Christmas. But I digress. Gift-giving on Hanukkah really only occurs in the United States, so that the Jewish kids don't feel left out when their Christian friends get presents for Christmas. The traditional Jewish gift-giving holiday is Purim, in the spring. A huge misconception is that Hanukkah is a really important holiday - it's not. Basically, they tried to kill us, they failed, let's eat. It's been blown out of proportion because it's near Christmas. I hope this answers all your questions.

-Known as the Festival of Lights -Eight nights -Light candles on the menorah -Sing the blessings -Eat latkes -Eat jelly doughnuts -Eat gelt (chocolate coins) -Open presents -Play dreidel -Sing Hannukah songs Misconceptions: -You open one present each night. Most families (at least the ones I know) don't do this. They just receive gifts as normal. -The spelling of the word "Hanukkah." It is also spelled as "Chanukah," "Chanuka," "Hannukah" and more. Good Luck!

the spellign

okay so hanukkah has 8 nights. the menorah has 9 candles. its like a jewish christmas from dec. 22- dec 29.