Jews around the world celebrated the first night of Hanukkah on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Hanukkah, the "Festival of Lights," starts on the 25th day of the Jewish calendar month of Kislev and lasts for seven days and eight nights, which is close to how many spellings of the word “Hanukkah” there are.

The Jewish religion only teaches from the Old Testament, known as the Torah. There are no biblical texts referring to Hanukkah at all.

The story of Hanukkah actually is a true event.

The Greek-Syrian ruler Antiochus IV tried to force Greek culture upon the peoples in his territory. Jews in Judea, which is now Israel, were forbidden their most important religious practices as well as study of the Torah. Although greatly outnumbered, Jews in the region took up weapons to protect their community and their religion.

Led by Mattathias the Hasmonean, and later his son Judah the Maccabee, the rebel armies became known as the Maccabees. After three years of fighting, in the year 165 B.C.E., the Maccabees victoriously reclaimed the temple.

They prepared the temple for rededication – in Hebrew, Hanukkah means "dedication." In the temple they found only enough purified oil to kindle the temple light for a single day. But miraculously, the light continued to burn for eight days.

The lighting of the menorah, known in Hebrew as the hanukiya (ha-knew-key-yah), is the most important Hanukkah tradition. A menorah is a candelabrum with nine arms. There are eight candles, one for each night of Hanukkah, and they are the same height. With a taller one in the middle, the Shamash (leader), which is used to light the others. Each evening of Hanukkah, one more candle is lit, with a special blessing.

Even the placement and lighting of the candles has special instructions.

Candles must be placed starting at the far right facing the menorah, and lit from the left hand side.

“The eight candles, and the oil lasting for eight days, are not arbitrary numbers in the story of Hanukkah,” said Rabbi Peter Stein of Temple Sinai in Cranston.

“In the fall of 165 B.C.E. the Jews were not able to observe the Festival of Sukkot, which is the Jewish eight-day harvest celebration,” continued Stein. “Sukkot is celebrated for eight days, and there are eight weeks between the two holidays.”

Another tradition intertwined with the Hanukkah celebration is the playing of the Dreidel game.

When the Jews were forbidden to study the Torah, they studied in secret, and kept spinning tops – “sivivons, or dreidels.” That way, if they were found studying, they could quickly pretend that they had only been playing.

Outside of Israel, a dreidel has the Hebrew letters "nun," "gimel," "hay" and "shin" on its four sides. These letters stand for "Nes gadol haya sham," which means, "A great miracle happened there," referring to Israel. An Israeli dreidel has the letter "pay" rather than "shin." This stands for "poh," meaning a great miracle happened “here."

The Hebrew letters also represent Yiddish words that tell how to play the dreidel game. Each player starts with the same amount of candies, chocolate coins (gelt), pennies or other pieces and puts one in a pot.

Players take turns spinning the dreidel, waiting to see which letter lands face up. Nun is for "nisht," do nothing. Gimel is for "gants," take the whole pot. Hay is for "halb," take half. Shin is for "shtel," add to the pot. The game ends when a single player wins all the tokens.

Another ritual is the eating of food fried in oil. This commemorates the oil burning at the temple.

In the United States, the most widespread Hanukkah food is latkes, or potato pancakes, a custom that may have developed in Eastern Europe, due to overwhelming availability of potatoes. In Israel, the favorite Hanukkah food is sufganiya, a kind of jelly donut cooked in oil. It is the cousin of the American jelly munchkin. Israelis eat sufganiyot for more than a month before the start of Hanukkah.

“If it is fried, how can it be bad?” said Stein, laughing.

Hanukkah is the only holiday that has consistency with all levels of Judaism. Everyone plays dreidel games, lights the menorah, eats fried foods and all say a special blessing of thanksgiving for being saved.