Happy Chanukah! Or, if you prefer, Happy Hanukkah! Since the word is translated from Hebrew, the spelling has different variations and both are considered correct. Regardless of your preferred way of spelling it, this joyous holiday – also known as the Festival of Lights – is so much fun to celebrate.
Chanukah represents the Jewish Maccabees’ triumphant revolt against their oppressors and the recapture of Jerusalem. After three years of war, there was no fresh supply of oil to light the Maccabean Temple’s menorah. It would take eight days to create a fresh supply of oil. However, a single day’s supply of oil was found and, miraculously, lasted for eight days. To commemorate this event, Jewish people light their menorahs for eight nights in a row. This holiday begins on the 25th day of Kislev, which is a month in the Hebrew calendar. Generally, this date falls around late November through late December. In 2022, Chanukah begins on Sunday, December 18th at sundown.
Traditionally, Chanukah is celebrated by saying a prayer at sunset and then lighting the shamash, or center candle of the menorah. This candle is then used to light the other candles. On the first evening, on candle is lit, with a successive number of candles being lit until all eight candles are lit on the eighth day. Families often exchange small gifts each night, especially to the children. A dreidel, or spinning top, game is often played as well.
A popular food to eat during Chanukah is a latke, or potato pancake. Jelly donuts are also eaten, as are other fried food. This is because the oil used in frying is representative of the oil at the heart of the miracle of Chanukah.
This word search is a large print puzzle, so it’s easy to read. The PDF download is two pages and includes both the word search and solution page. Here is the link: https://rokopuzzles.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Chanukah-word-search-small.pdf
Remember, you can just print the first page of a pdf. If you print out the whole thing, don’t look too closely at the second page – that’s where the answers are!
Like games? Check out this fun take on an old-fashioned pen and paper game: dots and boxes! The fun part of this book is that instead of having pages of simple dots, it has cute Chanukah icons! Available on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Chanukah-Dots-Boxes-holiday-version/dp/1712286536
