Seven Things You Always Wanted to Know About
Chanukah by Jill Morgenstern
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id you ever want to know more about the eight day celebration known as Chanukah? If you ever wondered about this holiday your child may have studied at school, here are some answers to questions you may have asked:
like to spell it as many ways as I can in a single document, both as a personal challenge and because I have a better chance of finding it with a search if I cover my bases. Some people say any spelling is correct as long as it has eight letters to represent the eight nights.
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Why Does it Change Dates? Chanukah is celebrated on the 25th day of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. Because the Hebrew calendar measures lunar months, the date of Chanukah changes from year to year.
What’s the Deal with the Spelling (or lack thereof?) Chanukah or Hanukkah is a Hebrew word. That means the word is spelled with letters that are not in English. Some people have preferred spellings, but there is no correct spelling. I
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D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 • O R E G O N F A M I LY. C O M
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Why Are We Eating This Time? Back when Greece ruled Israel, there was “a bad king” named Antiochus. He told Jewish people that they had to eat pigs. Pigs are not-kosher, meaning it’s against traditional Jewish law to eat them. There are a lot of things people who keep kosher are not supposed to eat, but for whatever reason, even people who don’t keep kosher sometimes draw the line at pig. Judah Maccabee and the Maccabees fought and fought the Greeks. The Greeks destroyed the
