Chanukah, also called Hanukkah is a Jewish Festival of Lights celebrated by Jewish families and the holiday gets started Thursday night at sunset on December 10, 2020. This Jewish holiday lasts for 8 days and nights and it ends on Friday, December 18, 2020 at nightfall.
Editor's Note: Please note these events were scheduled at press time. With the new stay at home order, some maybe cancelled so please check out the links included to make sure they are still scheduled.
LOCAL EVENTS IN VENTURA COUNTY
December 10: Chabad of Camarillo In Person and Livestream Chanukah Lighting Celebration(CAMARILLO)
December 10: Chabad of Ojai: Outdoor Chanukah LIghting at a Social Distance(OJAI )
December 11: Temple Ner Simcha Celebrates the Festival of Lights "Hanukkah" at The Stonehaus (WESTLAKE)
December 12: Chabad of Moorpark Chanukah Party at your Doorstep(MOORPARK)MUST RSVP A 15 MINUTE TIIME SLOT - MOORPARK ONLY
December 13: Chabad Ventura Hosts Outdoor Chanukah Movie Night at Poinsettia Pavilion (VENTURA) - RSVP REQUIRED
December 13: Chabad Conejo: Grand Chanukah Unity Parade and Drive in Concert (THOUSAND OAKS)
December 13: Chanukah Drive-in Concert @ Brandeis! (SIMI)
December 13: Temple Ner Simcha In Person or Streaming Latke Launch Celebrating Chanukah (THOUSAND OAKS) - PLEASE RSVP
December 14: Chabad of Moorpark Peach Hill Park Menorah Lighting Celebrating Chanukah(MOORPARK)
December 15: Chabad of Moorpark Chanukah Party at your Doorstep(MOORPARK)MUST RSVP A 15 MINUTE TIIME SLOT- MOORPARK ONLY
December 15: Chanukah Drive Thru Celebration With Calabasas Shul @ The Commons at Calabasas (CALABASAS)
December 16: Chabad of Moorpark Campus Canyon Park Menorah Lighting Celebrating Chanukah(MOORPARK)
December 17: Chabad of Moorpark Chanukah Party at your Doorstep(MOORPARK)MUST RSVP A 15 MINUTE TIIME SLOT - MOORPARK ONLY
VENTURA COUNTY VIRTUAL EVENTS
December 10: Chabad of Moorpark VIRTUAL Menorah Lighting Chanukah Party(MOORPARK)
December 10-17: Temple Adat Elohim VIRTUAL Chanukah @ Home Lighting (THOUSAND OAKS)
December 10-18/except Dec 12: Temple Beth Torah Presents - Zoomakkah! VIRTUAL Hanukkiah Nightly Lighting For Chanukah (VENTURA)
December 10: Chabad of Camarillo In Person and Livestream Chanukah Lighting Celebration(CAMARILLO)
December 11: Jewish Federation of Ventura County Presents VIRTUAL Sufganiyah Chanukah! - RSVP FOR ZOOM INFO
December 13: Temple Ner Simcha In Person or Streaming Latke Launch Celebrating Chanukah (THOUSAND OAKS) - PLEASE RSVP
December 14:Chabad of Camarillo Chanukah Out of the Box VIRTUAL Celebration (CAMARILLO)
December 16: Simi Valley Town Center Chanukah at the Mall on ZOOM(SIMI)
KIDS WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHANUKAH
Chanukah is one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays in the world celebrating religious freedom, rededication to our Jewish values and a joyous festival of lights.
The modern home celebration of Chanukah centers around the lighting of the Chanukiyah, a special menorah for Chanukah and oil based foods like latkes and jelly doughnuts, and the Dreidel (Spinning Top) game.
The holiday commemorates the victory of the Macabees over the Syrian-Greek armies in 165 B.C.E., and the subsequent liberation and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Legend tells us that there are eight days because when the Maccabees regained control of the Temple in Jerusalem and wanted to purify and rededicate it, they had a small cruse of oil, which would only last for one day. But miraculously, that small amount lasted for eight days, enough time to acquire new oil.
Sari Kopitnikoff @thatjewishmoment Presents:
FREE WORKBOOK CELEBRATING CHANUKAH
The Menorah or Chanukiyah is the ultimate display of joy and unity and the holiday of Chanukah is a festival of a historic victory and celebration highlighted by the lighting of the Menorah each night of the holiday. Yet it also contains a universal message for people of all faiths—that ultimately, good will triumph over evil, freedom over oppression, and light over darkness.
To commemorate the miracle of Chanukah, a nightly menorah lighting occurs each night where a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on until the eighth night, when all eight lights are kindled.
There are also several traditions around the holiday that help make it a fun holiday for kids and families. Here are some crafts where you can make your own Chanukiyah!
- There is one candle for each night of Chanukah plus the Shamash, or “helper,” candle that is used to light all the others.
- All eight of the Chanukah lights should be the same height; one candle the Shamash is usually placed higher or lower on the Chanukiyah, to differentiate it from the actual other nights lights.
- The entire family can share one Chanukiyah, or each person can light his or her own.
- The candles are placed in the Chanukiyah each night from the right side to the left (the same way Hebrew is read) but they are lit each night from left to right (the newest candle is lit first).
- There are three blessings said on the first night of Chanukah, and then two each subsequent night.
DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE BLESSINGS HERE
Oil played a significant role in the Chanukah story and so it is a Jewish tradition to eat foods that are fried in oil. Among the most popular Chanukah dishes are Potato Latkes (pancakes) and Sufganiyot (deep-fried jelly filled doughnuts).
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Gelt is one of the traditions is to give kids Chanukah gelt (Yiddish for "money"). It is often distributed to children to add to the holiday excitement. The amount is usually in small coins, although grandparents or relatives may give larger sums. That is why you will see chocolate coin bags in your local supermarket and why some parents give this to their kids every night during Chanukah.
This tradition of giving Chanukah gelt dates back to a long-standing East European custom of children presenting their teachers with a small sum of money at this time of year as a token of gratitude.
At Chanukah time, one of the traditions is to play the game of Dreidel (click here to make a Milk Carton Dreidel) with the family.
The Dreidel has a Hebrew letter on each of its four sides. The nun, gimmel, hay and shin stand for the saying, "Nes Gadol Haya Sham," which translates to "a great miracle occurred there." "There" referring to Israel, and "the great miracle" referring to the miracle of Chanukah, of course.
You need a Dreidel (click here to make a Milk Carton Dreidel) and some sort of pile of items such as pennies, beans, tokens, jelly beans. Each player puts one item from his pile of tokens into the center, making a pile called the ‘pot’.
The first player spins the dreidel; the letter that comes up determines what to do:
SYMBOLS ON THE DREIDEL & WHAT THEY MEAN
- נ (NUN) is facing up, the player does NOTHING.
- ג (GIMMEL) is facing up, the player gets EVERYTHING in the pot.
- ה (HAY) is facing up, the player gets HALF of the pieces in the pot. (If there are an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes the half the pot rounded up to the nearest whole number)
- ש (SHIN) or פ (PEI) is facing up, the player ADDS a game piece to the pot (often accompanied with the chant "Shin, Shin, put one in). In some game versions a Shin results in adding three game pieces to the pot (one for each stem of the Shin).
Then the next player goes and follows the Dreidel in relation to the pot and so on. If the player is out of pieces, they are either "out" or may ask another player for a "loan" No need to count the tokens to ‘find the winner’; whoever played is a winner.
For more information about the holiday visit Chabad at https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/
