Happy Hanukkah to Jews

Click to read the article in Turkish

Jews' Hanukkah holiday, an eight-day festival marking the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.​​​​​​​, will be celebrated between December 10 and 18 this year.

The first candles for the holiday were lit yesterday evening.

According to the Hebrew calendar, the Hanukkah Festival starts on the 25th day of the Kislev month when the first candle is lit.

Hanukkah means "dedication," "consecration" or "inauguration" in Hebrew.

Turkey's Chief Rabbi Rav İsak Haleva released a message celebrating the holiday, Şalom reported.

"On the occasion of Hanukkah, which is the holiday of resistance to negativities, self-confidence and success in terms of its historical meaning, I congratulate the holiday of all of you with sincere feelings," the rabbi said in his message.

No physical and mass ceremonies will take place this year due to the pandemic, Nisya İşman Allovi, the manager of the 500th Year Foundation's Jewish Museum of Turkey, told Anadolu Agency.

The holiday will be celebrated with live streams on the museum's Twitter account, with the first one starting at 4 p.m. today (December 11), he added. (EKN/VK)