Hanukkah, or the Feast of the Luminaries, is the festival on which the Jewish community commemorates the purification and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the rebellion of the Maccabees (168-161 BC).
When the Maccabees (so called because of Judas Maccabee's nickname, 'the hammer') liberated Jerusalem from Hellenistic oppression in the autumn of 164 BCE they found the temple desacralised, and the menorah extinguished and without pure oil for more than a day. Even so - according to Talmudic tradition - the menorah remained lit for 8 days, the time it took to obtain new oil, and since then both the rededication of the temple and the miracle of the oil have been celebrated.
This year Chanukah takes place between 18 and 26 December. The celebration at the Tres Culturas headquarters is scheduled for the afternoon-evening of Tuesday 20 December, starting at 17:45, and includes the ritual lighting of the third candle after sunset, followed by the recitation of the corresponding blessings (berachot) and the reading, by a representative of the Jewish Community of Seville, of an explanatory text about the tradition, as well as two stories about Chanukah.
Due to its character as a family and child-oriented festival, this year there will also be activities aimed at this public, such as a tasting of fritters (a typical dish for the occasion in the Sephardic tradition, due to its relation with oil), the making of drawings alluding to the festival or the game of the spinning top -which is played with a spinning top called the sevivonand with which chocolates or sweets are gambled.
To attend it is necessary to register in advance at THIS LINK.
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