As I told you when they celebrated their New Year, in New York there's an important Jewish community. These days they celebrate Hanukkah, which remembers the redidication of the Second Jerusalem Temple after the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd Century BC (Wikipedia to the rescue). It's celebrated in eight consecutive days.
You will like to know that this holiday is when you use the famous Jewish candelabrum, the Menorah. It has nine branches, the central one higher than the rest, which represents the holiday itself, while you lit a candle on each branch each day of Hannukah. Hannukah falls in December most years, and many Jewish use it as an equivalent of Christmas (which doesn't exist for them since they don't recognize Christ as a Messiah). Jewish people wish each other happy Hannukah instead of Merry Christmas.
This year it's a little early, from December 5th to 12th. So today, 7th, is the day where one lits the third candle, as you can see in this little Menorah (electric, times change and one has to be practical) in the cafeteria of my college.
