DigiNepal · festivals
Hanukkah (Festival of Lights) (חנוכה (Hebrew)). Region: Israel and Jewish communities worldwide. Tradition: Judaism. Calendar: Hebrew calendar (Kislev 25, eight days; begins the evening before). Dates: Worldwide (first day; candles lit the previous evening) 2026: Saturday 5 December 2026 to Saturday 12 December 2026 [computed]; Worldwide (first day; candles lit the previous evening) 2027: Saturday 25 December 2027 to Saturday 1 January 2028 [computed]; Worldwide (first day; candles lit the previous evening) 2028: Wednesday 13 December 2028 to Wednesday 20 December 2028 [computed]. History and significance: Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid empire in the second century BCE. Tradition says a single day's oil kept the temple lamp burning for eight days. Families light one more candle on the menorah each night. It usually falls in December. Key rituals and foods: Lighting the menorah, dreidel games, gifts; foods include latkes and sufganiyot doughnuts fried in oil. Date basis: official = matches a government gazetted holiday list; computed = calculated from the calendar system (tithi astronomy with skyfield and JPL DE421, Hijri Umm al-Qura, Chinese, Korean and Hebrew calendar libraries, or the fixed rule); expected = Umm al-Qura projection pending moon sighting. Sources: Wikipedia and Wikidata (CC BY-SA, CC0) and government holiday lists, summarised in our own words.