Travel with Angela Lansbury: Hanukah symbols and where to see them

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Hanukah symbols and where to see them - eg Trafalgar Square, London, or buy them

A hanukiah with eight branches and coloured candles and the six point Star of David.

Hanukah dates vary from year to year because the Jewish calendar is like the Muslim calendar and does not follow the reformed gregorian calendar which attempted to ensure that dates from more uniform from one year to the next and kept in tune with the seasons, but instead with the phases of the moon. This year, 2022, the eight day Jewish festival of lights, Hanukah, starts on the evening of Sunday December 18th and ends on December 26th which is Boxing Day in the UK and several other countries, or in the Christian calendar, St Stephen's Day.

In the UK the newspapers showed King Charles III of England visiting a Jewish community centre JW3 in London, and dancing the hora with Anne Frank's posthumous stepsister, just before Hanukah. King Charles III was presented with a hanukiah.

If you look at Wikipedia you will see US Presidents with hanukiahs and rabbis.

Hanukiah

The hanukiah is the nine branch candlestick, a candle for each of the eight nights, plus the

The most familiar symbol is the hanukiah.

Jerusalem, hanukiah at the Wailing Wall.

Other hanukah symbols are the dreidl, a spinning top, and chocolate coins covered in gold foil, called Hanukah gelt (German or yiddish for gold or money). Both are gifts for children, or adults.

Hanukah gelt, coins of chocolate covered in gold foil.

Food For The Festival of Light

Food with oil reflects the story of the miracle of the oil which burned for eight days, when it looked like there was only enough oil for one. Food using oil starts with the savoury latkes or grated potato, fried in oil. I like to eat latkes in the UK at Jewish style deliatessens such as B & K in Hatch End.

For desserts or snacks, you can enjoy jam doughnuts. (Americans call jam as jelly. What the British call jelly, the Americans describe by the brand name, Jello.)

Jam doughnuts, cooked in oil for hanukah.

When I was visited by an Orthodox Jewish person they brought with them a hanukiah as a gift which they lit during the 8 days of hanukah.

Candles

They brought the 44 candles you need. Why so many? One day one, you light the servant candle, the highest one, as well as the first candle. On day two, the servant candle and two candles, which makes 3. Add them all up until the last day and it makes 44 candles. Yes. Try it.. The numbers are 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, which adds up to 44.

Around hanukah, time the Jewish shops either sells the hanukiah with the candles, or remind you to buy the set of candles.

Expect to find all these items either in a supermarket in an area likely to have Jewish customers and Jewish communities or community centres or public buildings which celebrate the holidays of all religions. In Singapore the 9 recognized religions are recognized and the Jewish community sponsors giant hanukiahs, as the plaques below will tell you.

You can buy tee-shirts with hanukah symbols and messages, other garments, and baubles for a hanukah bush.

The Hanukah Bush

Hanukah Socks

Instead of a red large sock for Santa to fill, for Hanukah there are blue socks.

I was researching for my speech on Christmas, Hanukah and Chrismukah for Toastmasters International clubs which I belong to, including Braddell Heights Advanced, and Singapore Online Dynamic, and Tampines Changkat Advanced. I added two blog posts on the subject on travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com I discovered that there was a hanukiah on Traflagar Square, and the England's King Charles III in London was given a hanukiah in London where he visited a Jewish community centre and danced the hora with Anne Frank's posthumous sister. (After WW2 ended, Anne Frank's father moved from Holland to England, lived around the corner from me in Edgware, which I only learned years later. He married another survivor whose daughter is still alive.)

Where to see a hanukiah>

ISRAEL

Jerusalem, wailing wall.

Jersusalem, windows in the Hadasseh hospital.