Chanukkah ***Updated***

It's that time of year! December 4th at sunset began the eight day festival of lights known as Chanukkah. Being a Christian, and never really knowing any Jewish people personally, I always thought this was THE holiday for the Jews. But, when I went to research it more for this post, I was very surprised. I found out that Chanukkah is not a very important religious holiday. This website has great, simple information telling all about it. It's a quick, informative read...I recommend it. I haven't been out since the holiday started, so I don't know what kind of festivities have been going on around the city. For the last couple of weeks I have seen Chanukkah candies and toys out at the grocery store. I'm planning to pick some up for my kids this weekend. When are they ever going to have the chance to get that again?! I'll take pictures and post them later. Last night, shortly after sunset, I did hear that Chanukkah had indeed begun. We were sitting in our living room and heard really loud music coming from outside that sounded like this:

I found out that the song I heard is called "Hava Nagila", a very popular, traditional Jewish song. It was fun to be outside hearing this song and the people across the street joyfully cheering along with it. I tried to take my own video, but it was too dark, and my camera didn't pick up the sound, so you're going to have to use your imagination. I hope I see some more fun things to post about soon!
Edited on 12-7:
I persuaded my husband to take us to the mall last night so that I could purchase some of the Chanukkah treats and see some of the sights around the city. I brought my camera along just in case I saw something interesting. Right when we got on the road I saw something very interesting.....but wouldn't you know it.....it didn't even occur to me to take a picture until it was gone! The car in front of us had a big electrical menorah strapped to it's roof! That's something you don't see every day. This menorah, or more accurately, hanukiya, was out on the street near a stoplight.

We arrived at the mall and knew we were not going to stay long --- it was SO crowded! These were the only decorations the mall had up.

There are some traditional foods of Chanukkah. In Israel, the favorite Chanukkah food is sufganiya, a kind of jelly donut cooked in oil. Israelis eat sufganiyot for more than a month before the start of Chanukkah. This sounded like a tradition that I wouldn't mind being a part of! These donuts were being sold everywhere throughout the mall. I bought one to take home and try.

It didn't taste bad, but it was nothing like an American donut. That's a good thing though....now I won't be tempted to partake in the part of the tradition where they eat them for a month!
We picked up some of these boxes of Chanukkah treats for the kids. (Heather, there's 4 on the way to you too ;)

Inside the box were a few candies and some really cheap versions of a dreidel.

My kids are very excited about it.
We were told by our driver that most of the celebrations take place on the last day of Chanukkah. Maybe we'll get a chance to go out that day and see what's going on. If we do, you can be sure that my camera will be coming along!
(In case you're wondering.....I've purposely spelled Chanukkah in the least popular of the varied ways so as not to get many hits from search engines!)