Hanukkah (Hebrew: חנוכה‎, Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, and may occur from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a special candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. An extra light called a shamash (Hebrew for "servant") is also lit each night, and is given a distinct location, usually higher or lower than the others. The purpose of the extra light is to adhere to the prohibition, specified in the Talmud (Tracate Shabbat 21b–23a), against using the Hanukkah lights for anything other than publicizing and meditating on the Hanukkah story. (The shamash is used to light the other lights.) As such, if one were to read from the lights–something prohibited–then it’s not clear whether the light one’s reading from was from the Hanukkah lights or the shamash light. So the shamash acts as a safeguard from accidental transgression.[citation needed]

Hanukkah is mentioned in the deuterocanonical books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. 1 Maccabees states: "For eight days they celebrated the rededication of the altar. Then Judah and his brothers and the entire congregation of Israel decreed that the days of the rededication… should be observed… every year… for eight days. (1 Mac. 4:56–59)" According to 2 Maccabees, "the Jews celebrated joyfully for eight days as on the feast of Booths."

Because of the central role that oil played in the Chanukah miracle, it is customary to serve foods fried in oil. The traditional foods vary according to country of origin: Jews of Eastern European (or Ashkenazi) origin eat latkes, or fried potato pancakes. Sephardic Jews eat different varieties of deep-fried donuts. Greek Jews call them "loukomades"; Persian Jews refer to them as "zelebi," while in Israel jelly doughnuts are wildly popular and known as "sufganiot."

It is also customary to eat dairy foods on Chanukah, in commemoration of the bravery of Yehudit, who used cheese to defeat the Greek general Holofernes. Click here to read the story of this brave woman. And one more custom….It is customary amongst Sephardic residents of Jerusalem to arrange communal meals during the eight days of Chanukah. Friends who quarreled during the year traditionally reconcile at these meals.