There is something about the phrase "Festive Season" that causes the imagery, colours and lights of several different celebrations to be blurred and blended in the public mind.

The cultural domination of Christmas (leaving for another place the well-canvassed debate as to whether that is a sincere religious celebration or an explosion of global commercial opportunism) tends to lend the idea that all the world’s people have some kind of celebration around December, a parallel, alternative Christmas, if you will. Kwanzaa, for those who prefer a celebration rooted elsewhere than Europe – Christianity’s origins are in the Middle East but Christmas celebrations as we know them were fashioned in Europe – and Chanukah, grossly incorrectly perceived as the "Jewish Christmas".

Lighting of candles, common in a number of traditions in the dark continent that is Europe in December, and giving of gifts, which at Chanukah is a relatively recent invention, does not create any equivalence with other celebrations.

Chanukah is not among the most significant festivals in the year; in the Jewish Calendar issued in Bulgaria, it is listed along with Purim below the six derived from Torah.

Shedding light
There are variations in the stories about the origins of Chanukah. The best-known account is that it commemorates an episode in the time of Hellenistic persecution of the Jews under Antiochus IV Ephiphanes during the second century BCE, the time of the Second Temple. The holy places had been desecrated, among other things by forcing sacrifices of pigs in the temple and by defiling the sacred oil.

After victory by the Maccabees – the Hasmoneans – it was necessary to re-dedicate the temple. Only one container of oil that had remained undefiled was found, and while it should have lasted just one day, it lasted eight. This, tradition has it, is the miracle commemorated in the eight-day festival that is Chanukah, themed on light and by its name, commemorating the dedication of the temple – it is this, in fact, that is the spirit of the celebration, not the commemoration of a military victory.

More recent scholarship has suggested that the tradition has omitted what some researchers claim is another dimension to the story; that the authorities had become involved in internal strife between traditionalist and Hellenised Jews. Leaving that aside for academics to argue about, Chanukah is about, literally, the miraculous shedding of light.

Tradition
Chanukah begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev. Given that the day begins at sunset, this means that Chanukah this year begins at sunset on December 11, at 4.45pm Bulgarian time, and that December 12 is the first day of Chanukah, which in turn ends on December 19 (the second day of the month of Tevet) at 5.27pm.

During the eight-day period, there is no fasting – indeed, Chanukah is known for its ancient and more recent traditional foods – while no eulogies are delivered. A central image of Chanukah is the nine-stemmed candelabra, the hanukia, which has two more places for candles than the usual menorah. This is to accommodate candles or oil for eight days, with a place for the shammos ("servant" or "guard") used to lit the other candles.

There are prescriptions for the hanukia, with designs that do not align the candles in a straight line regarded as unacceptable. Importantly, the shammos must be allocated a separate place, and the places for the candles must be sufficiently far apart so that their flames cannot mingle.

With the recitation of blessings, the first candle on the first night is lit, using the shammos, on the right-hand-side of the hanukia as one faces it. On subsequent nights, new candles are added to the left of the first and lit in order of newness. On Shabat, Chanukah candles are lit first.

At the table
Fried foods are also emblematic at Chanukah, linking to the theme of oil. Indelibly associated with Chanukah – at least among Ashkenazi Jews, whose traditions have become arguably better known in the world through American popular culture – is the potato latke (some time ago I had access to a deli that kept me in potato latkes all year round, a prospect more or less impossible in Sofia, unless they are made at home).

Apart from the tradition of eating dairy products, cheese especially, and doughnuts (sufganiyot) – again, in Bulgaria, the problem would be food bought from a shop, highly unlikely to be kosher except in rare cases of some imported products. In Bulgaria, I have seen Chanukah traditions illustrated with boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts, but whether those were kosher I do not know.

As an aside, those who seek to keep kosher in this country do get some supplies through the synagogue in Sofia or the Chabad Centre, but otherwise
in a country where the Jewish community is much diminished and where a significant number do not keep to dietary prescriptions, there is no market demand for kosher food shelves, as in other countries.

The Santa Clause
Gift-giving has become part of Chanukah traditions in some places, some suggest because of the proximity of Christmas. Adam Sandler referred to being "the only kid with no Christmas tree" in his Chanukah song.

Some (again, allowing for the fact that gift-giving is not universal) give gelt, a Yiddish word for money, while others give gifts, and then sometimes spreading elements of the gift-giving out over the eight days so that it becomes a whole by Zot Chanukah, the final day. But inasmuch as all is not gold that glitters, not every gift in December is for Christmas.