Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights

The world is always a better place when different people learn how to get along. This is why I think globalization could be a great way of promoting mutual knowledge and understanding among cultures; and while I’m not about to encourage you to actually adopt holidays from cultures other than your own – it might be disrespectful for the original culture – I definitely think that you should use such holidays as a chance to learn something new about different kinds of people.

Unless you’re a Jewish, I think there’s a good chance you don’t really know much about Hanukkah, except perhaps some shallow glimpse you’ve captured from trivial conversations or even TV shows. With that in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to provide some insight on this Jewish holiday. For the outside viewer, this is easily recognized as the festival of lights because, well… there are a lot of lights involved in the celebration. Regardless, there’s much substance lurking behind this religious ritual which you probably don’t know about.

Most people seem to think of Hanukkah as the Jewish version of Christmas; truth of the matter is there is really no connection or comparison between both holidays. Even though Hanukkah is celebrated in the same time of the year, it commemorates the physical and spiritual triumph of the Jewish people, which secured their creeds and independence more than 2,000 years ago. The celebration of Hanukkah is thus a deeply spiritual event (which spans 8 days) aimed at providing homage to the wonderful workings of God.