Hanukkah menorah

What it is

A hanukkiah is a lamp with nine holders, made for the eight nights of Hanukkah. Candles or small oil lamps sit in eight of them, and the ninth carries the shamash, a helper flame used to light the others. English speakers usually call it a Hanukkah menorah; in Hebrew, menorah simply means lamp. Modern Hebrew prefers chanukkiyah, a word Sephardic Jews of the eastern Mediterranean, speakers of Judeo-Spanish, were using by the 1700s. Hemda Ben-Yehuda brought it into the modern language, and her husband Eliezer led the revival of Hebrew in the late 1800s. The lamp is not the seven-branched Temple menorah, though it recalls it.

Origins and the oil

Hanukkah remembers a Jewish resistance movement, the Maccabees, who fought Syrian attempts to absorb Jewish culture from 167 BCE. Though fewer in number, they pushed the Syrian forces back twice. The books of Maccabees say nothing about lamp oil. That part of the story comes from the Talmud, written centuries later, which ties the eight days of the festival to a lamp that kept burning for eight. According to that account, the Temple's golden menorah had already been looted, a cheaper metal one replaced it, and a single day's supply of oil lasted the whole time.

Straight or curved

Lamps differ in shape. One question is whether the eight lights must form a straight line or may follow a curve; another is the line of the branches. Chabad-Lubavitch lamps have arms that rise in a straight diagonal. The movement's Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, made that case in 1982, pointing to a diagram drawn by Maimonides in the 1100s and reading it as a guide to the true shape. Critics reply that the diagram was schematic rather than a picture of a real lamp, and note that images from the Second Temple period show arms that are rounded.

Public lightings

Hanukkiahs often stand in the open during the festival. Chabad-Lubavitch has held such lightings since 1987, when its Rebbe gave the instruction, and elected officials commonly join in. In Washington, a White House presence at the National Menorah ceremony in Lafayette Park goes back to 1979 and President Jimmy Carter. Inside the White House, kindling began with Bill Clinton in 1993, and President George W. Bush started a yearly Hanukkah party there in 2001. British members of parliament light a hanukkiah each year at the Speaker's residence in the Palace of Westminster.

Today and change

Hanukkah sits close to Christmas in December in the United States, and courts have weighed the two together. In 1989 the Supreme Court ruled, in County of Allegheny v. ACLU, that a public display of a hanukkiah and a Christmas tree was not an endorsement of either religion, since the court saw the winter season as largely secular. Shops offer adapted goods, among them a Menorah Tree and a turkey-shaped menurkey made for the 2013 Thanksgivukkah. In 1997 the New York Times website ran an interactive menorah that visitors lit by clicking. Museums in Jerusalem, New York, London and Rio de Janeiro hold collections; the Lindo lamp is part of London's Jewish Museum.

How Hanukkah menorah is kept

Over Hanukkah's eight nights a light is added each evening. The first night carries one flame; on the eighth, all eight burn. A helper candle, the shamash, sits on its own branch and lights the rest. Lamps may be made of any material that is safe near fire. Since a 1987 instruction from its Rebbe, Chabad-Lubavitch has held many public lightings, often in December, where officials, rabbis and crowds take part.

When and where

Hanukkah lasts eight days, and the lamp is kindled on every one of them. In the sources the holiday and its public lightings fall in December. The flames increase night by night, so the eighth evening shows the full row of eight.

Jewish homes keep the lamp wherever Hanukkah is observed. Public lightings are common in the United States, and New York City has two very large hanukkiahs. Each December the House of Commons lights one in London, and in 2024 a hanukkiah was kindled in Kyiv.

What Hanukkah menorah means

The eight flames hold the memory of the Temple's rededication, and of oil that was expected to last one day and burned for eight, an account the Talmud gives. Light is added rather than taken away, so the festival grows brighter as it goes. The shamash exists so that the eight are kindled by a helper, not by each other.

Days Hanukkah menorah is marked

Questions people ask about Hanukkah menorah

See also

Las PosadasA nine-night Christmas pageant remembering Mary and Joseph seeking shelterChristmasA festival of Jesus's birth, kept on 25 December with gifts, lights and shared mealsChristmas carolFestive songs and hymns sung during the Christmas season and door to doorAdvent wreathAn evergreen ring of candles lit week by week in the lead-up to Christmas

Good reading and sources

• CYBERSEASON'S GREETINGSThe New York Times, Article
• CYBERSEASON'S GREETINGSThe New York Times, Article

• Hanukkah menorah on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.