CHANUKAH TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD

When Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 they settled in Syria for safety.  On Chanukah they vowed to light an additional candle, a shamash or servant candle, for thanks for their rescue.  Consider lighting an extra candle today in honor of the refugees who have since fled Syria in search of a safe homeland.

It is customary in France, in the southern region of Avignon, on the Shabbat during Chanukah to open a new bottle of wine or cask.  After Havdalah, the end of Shabbat, Jews travel to neighboring homes to toast the holiday and celebrate the community. 

Mexicans call the holiday Januca or Lucenarias, the feast of lights, and children play a game called Toma todo or winner take all.  It is similar to dreidel except the top has 6 sides not four.  Their dreidel is called a pirinola. Mexican Jews often break a piñata shaped like a dreidel filled with Chanukah treats and trinkets.

In Italy, they combine the holidays of Tisha B’Av where the candle used to read the portion is saved and used to light the menorah on Chanukah.
The sadness of the destruction of the Holy Temple is overcome by the joy of rededication on the festival of redemption.

There are no Jews left in Kurdistan but Kurdish Jews celebrate wherever they are in the world.  Like giving Chanukah gelt, the children lock their doors to their rooms and parents must give them coins to gain entrance. If they are too poor to have a menorah, they use eggshells to hold wicks and oil to light every night.

Moroccan Jews add an extra day, a ninth day, called the day of the shamash, when children go house to house collecting left over Chanukah candles.  They create a giant bonfire and dance and sing.  Single women jump over the fire to hope to find a husband, while married women to conceive a child. You could also soak three candles in hot water to soften them and twist them together to make a small havdalah candle.

Tunisian Jews celebrate the seventh day of Chanukah, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the beginning of the month of Tevet, for a holiday within a holiday.  This festival known as the Festival of the Daughters or Chag haBanot, honors the courage of Yehudit, who saved the Jewish nation by killing the general sent by Antiochus, the evil ruler of the Syrian-Greek Empire. On this day, women do no work, but visit each other and eat doughnuts and honey cookies.  It is especially meaningful to women about to be married.

In Israel, Chanukah is a holiday without limits as you can drive, shop, and travel by bus and train. It is impossible to be in a bad mood while eating a jelly donut or sufganiyot. The entire country comes together in a rare celebration of solidarity.

May your family create its own light and love filled traditions of Chanukah.