The celebration of Chanukah commemorates that miracle by the ritual lighting of eight canldles in a Menorah for eight consecutive days. The Menorah has nine candle holders, but one candle is used only to light the others. This is called the SHAMAS candle. In Hebrew SHAMAS mean to watch over. This candle is the guardian of the others.

The dreidel is a four-sided top with Hebrew letters on each side: NUN, HEY, SHIN, GIMEL. The letters represent words which translate as "big miracle happened there" on traditional dreidels, but in Israel it has been changed to read "big miracle happened here." The dreidel is spun for a game of chance played with nuts, raisins, gold wrapped chocolate (gelt) or pennies. When the dreidel is spun, the spinner must obey the Hebrew letter. In the game NUN means nothing and the next player spins, SHAM means the player must put into the pot, HEY means the spinner takes half the pot, and GIMEL means the spinner takes all the pot. Since the stakes may be raisins, this is a benign and happy form of gambling.

Food for Chanukah must be cooked in oil to celebrate the miracle of oil. The traditional dishes are potato latkes and jelly donuts or try sweet potato and turnip latkes from the healthy hedonist holidays .  Or try Janna Gur's Balkan Potato and Leek Pancake as well as  Chreime - North African Hot Fish Stew

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