Teaching Children the Traditions of Hanukkah

"Many years ago there was a king named King Antiochus of Syria, who was very cruel to the Jewish people in Israel. He did not allow the Jewish people worship God, or read their Torah. The Torah is much like the Bible is to people of the Christian faith. King Antiochus tried to force people to pray to the idols that he prayed to. If the Jewish people did not do as he ordered, he would torture and kill them. This king was so mean, that he earned the nickname, Antiocius the Madman.

The Jewish people decided that they were not going to live like that anymore, so they rebelled. They formed an army, which was led by Judah the Maccabee. He was a strong warrior, and very brave.

It took a few years, but the Jewish army was able to defeat the Syrians, even though King Antiocius of Syria had a much bigger army.

On the twenty-fifth day of Kislev (the Jewish calendar), the Jewish army marched into their Holy City of Jerusalem and were horrified by what they saw. Their Holy Temple had been vandalized. The Syrians had put idols all over their Holy Temple, and there was trash everywhere.

The Jewish people dug through all the trash and filth, and were finally able to find one bottle of pure, clean olive oil to light their menorah. This was only enough oil for one day, and it would take them eight days to make more. They decided to go ahead, and they poured the oil into the menorah and lit it. That one flame lasted the eight days that it took to make more oil. It was a miracle. The Jewish people chose those eight days to honor and remember this miracle of Hanukkah. It also became known as the Festival of Lights.

Because of this miracle, the Jewish people use a menorah with nine branches. One branch for each of the days of Hanukkah, and the ninth branch (in the very middle), is used as the servant light (shamash); to light each day's candle. The candles for the menorah must be the exact same height, and be in a straight row. The servant light (shamash) is either higher or lower than the other candles.

At nightfall each day's candle is lit, and they remain lit for ½ hour after night fall. The whole family and friends are together, during which time they all sing songs and tell stories concerning their holiday of Hanukkah."

Several years ago, my husband and I were walking our boys through the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas decorations; when one of our boys noticed a menorah in the window of one of the apartments next to ours.

Being curious like his mother, he asked "Mom, what's that?" I had no idea, and I had to tell him so. All I knew was, it was Jewish. For the next few days I noticed that he kept looking up at the window with the menorah. I could tell that he was fascinated with the candelabra in the window, so one morning after the kids had gone to school, I went over and introduced myself to the lady of the house, and explained to her the reason for my visit. She was wonderful and gracious. She enjoyed sharing the traditions of her faith, as much as I did mine. She was grateful for the opportunity to share with us.

To make a long story short, our family was invited to their home for dinner the next evening, to give her and her husband a chance to teach our children and us, about the Jewish faith, and their tradition of Hanukkah. That was the beginning of a very long and valuable friendship; and it all started with a Menorah placed in the window.