Menorah lighting ceremony set for next week
Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
Gavin Young / Calgary Herald
Each year the Jewish community commemorates a significant part of its history in the lighting of the menorah.
And while it is done in homes and other places, one of the most meaningful events takes place annually at Calgary’s City Hall.
Once again, Calgary’s Jewish community will celebrate the 26th annual Calgary community Chanukah menorah lighting ceremony at the atrium on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
“The lighting of the menorah is the focal point of the celebration of Chanukah — an annual festival which commemorates a 2,300yearold historically significant battle for religious freedom. Jews worldwide light their Menorahs — candelabras — as a gesture and public display of remembrance and commitment,” said Rabbi Menachem Matusof of Chabad Lubavitch Alberta, who with his wife Rochel is also responsible for the creation and annual display of the giant 5.5metre menorah in front of Heritage Park on 14th Street S.W.
“Chabad Lubavitch, a global Jewish educational organization, organizes community lightings such as this one throughout the world including at the White House, in front of parliaments in Canada, Britain, Australia, and the Alberta provincial legislature.”
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi will don his purple yarmulke again and participate in this year’s ceremony.
The event has become a popular one in Calgary as each year hundreds of people celebrate the lighting ceremony which includes songs from the Jewish day schools’ choirs, traditional klezmer music by Take The Oy Train, dancing, and eating traditional potato pancakes called latkes.
People attending can bring gifts of warm clothing and sleeping bags for Project Warmth.
The event will be broadcast live on Shaw Television Cable 10 and Cable 89 and rebroadcast during the eight days of Chanukah, which begins on Tuesday night. The event will also be broadcasted live around the world over the Internet at www.menorah.ca.
“Every year we renew the energy and the renewed light. The miracle of the heroism of the people,” said Matusof, adding people light the candles to remember the miracle and to remind themselves that God is with them.
He says the light is placed in a prominent and public space to publicize the miracle that took place.
The ceremony at City Hall is just an extension of that.
“This has become a big event. One of the leading Jewish events in the community,” says Matusof.
Chanukah, or Hanukkah, marks the ancient victory of the Maccabees over their Hellenist Greek oppressors and the rededication of the ancient temple in Jerusalem.
“Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday whose beauty and meaning derives from the basic human desire for freedom. Although Hanukkah commemorates a unique historical event in 165 B.C.E., its theme of liberation transcends the specific war between the Jewish Maccabees and the Hellenized Syrians,” said Rabbi Shaul Osadchey, of the Beth Tzedec Congregation. “In every generation, the holiday of Hanukkah has served as a universal symbol representing the struggle to think, believe, and act freely. The Jewish home is the principle setting for the lighting of the Menorah (candelabra) because it is within that context that freedom is most dearly cherished.
“The eight days of Hanukkah are based upon the legend that the priests had only one jar of oil with which to relight the menorah and thereby reconsecrate the ancient Temple in Jerusalem that had been defiled by the Syrians. Miraculously, the oil lasted eight days until new oil could be produced for the menorah. The subsequent practice of lighting an eightbranched menorah reminds Jews of God’s protective care along with the call to engage in bringing social justice into the world and thus dispelling the darkness of intolerance with the light of human dignity and freedom.”
mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com
Published on: December 9, 2014
Last Updated: December 12, 2014 5:07 PM MST
http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/menorah-lighting-ceremony-set-for-next-week