Hanukkah begins at sundown

Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, begins tonight at sundown.

The festival commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd Century B.C.E. and the "miracle of the oil."

According to the Talmud, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to light the Temple's lamp for one day at the rededication, but it burned for eight until more oil could be obtained.

Hanukkah customs include the nightly lighting of the nine-branched menorah, eating foods fried in oil such as latkes (potato pancakes), playing with the dreidel, and the giving of Hanukkah gelt, gifts of money to children.