12 Interesting Hanukkah Facts You Probably Didn't Know

There are many variations of how to spell the holiday's name in English, including Hanukkah, Hanukah, Hannukah, Chanukah, or Chanukkah. Since Hanukkah is originally a Hebrew word and there is no accurate way to directly translate the Hebrew sounds to English, as long as you’re pronouncing it right, you’re OK.

Remember the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem? That's where the holiday gets its name from. The Festival of Lights uses candles to honor and celebrate that rededication. In the Hebrew language, Hanukkah refers to "dedication".

Hanukkah is celebrated on the 25th of the Hebrew lunar month of Kislev each year, but the date in the Gregorian calendar (what we're using at the moment) is different. As the lunar and solar calendars aren't in sync, Hanukkah can fall any time from late November to late December.

When the Maccabees relit the menorah at the Second Temple, they thought that they only had enough oil to burn the candle for one night. But miraculously, the flames continued flickering for eight nights, leaving them time to reclaim the temple.

Although people used to give money to each other for Hanukkah in the past, as Christmas becomes much more popular, a lot of Jews opt for giving gifts at around the same time as their Christian friends and neighbors.

A menorah is a lamp with seven candles, which was used in the ancient Temple. On Hanukkah, Jewish people light what is called a hanukkiah, a lamp with nine candles each night of the holiday. Four on either side and the candle in the middle is used to light all the others.

The Chanukah candles should be lit right after nightfall because their purpose is to bring light into darkness. However, they need to be lit early enough so that people will be able to see them – reminding others of the great miracle of Hanukkah.

It's all because they are cooked in oil and remind us of the miracle of the legendary Hanukkah story. The most popular traditional Hanukkah recipes are potato latkes and sufganiyot (jelly-filled doughnuts). In fact, around 17.5 million jelly donuts are consumed in Israel during Hanukkah.

Because the holiday falls near Christmas, it’s commonly believed to be the most important holiday in Jewish tradition, but it’s indeed not. Other Jewish holidays like Passover and Rosh Hashanah are much more important in the traditional religious sense.

A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides, each marked with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. All players begin with an equal number of game pieces and spin the dreidel once during their turn - then depending on which side is facing up, they either win or lose varying amounts of gelt.

Because the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars don’t align perfectly, sometimes an early Hanukkah coincides with Thanksgiving. When the two holidays happened at the same time in 2013, it was called "Thanksgivukkah". The next Thanksgivukkah will be in 2070.

On the first night of Hanukkah 2019, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir tweeted a photo of her feet in some nontraditional but festive blue, neon green, and purple socks. It’s not always usual that a Hanukkah greeting comes from 408 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.