Next: 5 to 12 Dec 2026
Hanukkah
Eight nights of food fried in oil, for the oil that burned eight days in the Temple.
What is eaten for Hanukkah
Hanukkah recalls the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, when one day's worth of pure oil is said to have burned for eight. A lamp is lit each night, and food is fried in oil in memory of the miracle. Ashkenazi families fry latkes, potato pancakes eaten with apple sauce or sour cream. In Israel the food of the season is the sufganiyah, a jam doughnut. Sephardi and North African Jews make fritters in syrup and sfenj. Children are given chocolate coins.
The dishes
Also part of it, and being written: Sfenj (North African ring doughnut.).
More dishes made for Hanukkah
Chocolate
🇨🇮 Ivory Coast and 5 moreA sweet or bitter food made from processed cocoa beans, enjoyed in many forms worldwide
Sweet or dessert, Snacks
Potato pancakeVegetarian
🇧🇾 Belarus and 5 moreShallow-fried pancakes made from grated or mashed potato, common across Europe
Main dish, Lunch, Dinner
BerlinerVegetarian
🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreJam-filled German doughnut without a central hole, dusted with sugar or glazed
Sweet or dessert, Snacks, Tea time
LokmaVegan
🇮🇶 Iraq and 4 moreSmall fried dough pieces sweetened with syrup or honey
Sweet or dessert, Snacks, Tea time
Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Hanukkah" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Berliner: Lear 21, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Lokma: Benreis, CC BY 3.0, source
- Chocolate: formulatehealth, CC BY 2.0, source
- Hanukkah gelt: liz west, CC BY 2.0, source
- Potato pancake: Photo made by Daniel Spils and uploaded to flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Apple sauce: Taken, CC0, source
- Buñuelo: Klenje, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Sufganiyah: Noam Furer, CC0, source
- Latke: Mark Mitchell, CC BY 2.0, source