Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights in Pitigliano

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Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday. The word, in Hebrew, means “inauguration” and with this commemoration we remember the reconquest and rededication by the Jews of the Temple of Jerusalem after it had been desecrated and invaded by the Seleucid Greeks in the 2nd century. B.C. The story goes that, once the Temple had been reconquered, the Jewish people wanted to purify and reconsecrate it by lighting the Menorah, the typical seven-branched candelabra that was inside. It happened, however, that the oil they currently had available to light the lamp would only have been enough for the first wick (shamash) and, to have more, the Priest would have needed at least another eight days. It was a miracle, however, that that single cruet was enough for all the eight days necessary for the production of more oil. To commemorate this miraculous event it was then decided to build a new nine-armed candelabra called Hanukkhià in which, in fact, one arm is highlighted and is used to light the others. The festival begins at sunset on the 25th of the month of Kislev (December). Every evening an additional candle is lit, taking the light from the shamash until reaching the eighth day in which the entire candelabra will be illuminated. It is traditional to accompany this ceremony with the tasting of fried sweets (sufganioth).