Overview
- Hanukkah in 2025 runs from sunset on Dec. 14 to sunset on Dec. 22, beginning on 25 Kislev in the Hebrew calendar.
- The core practice is lighting a hanukkiah using a shamash, placing candles right to left and lighting them left to right, adding one each night to reach eight.
- Contemporary observance often includes fried foods like latkes and doughnuts, the dreidel game, and in many communities gift-giving.
- Modern interpretations span a spectrum, from Zionist-era emphasis on Jewish heroism to Americanized family celebrations and new spiritual or ethical readings that also recover figures like Judith and the mother of seven.
- A recent Tzohar Index poll reports that 92% of secular Israelis light Hanukkah candles, with 68% doing so every night and about 24% on some nights.