How Hanukkah is Celebrated Across the Globe
by Jewish Living Delaware Staff
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Hanukkah may be rooted in one ancient miracle, but the ways it’s celebrated around the world are as varied as the people who light the menorah. No matter where you go, you’ll find candles flickering, songs being sung, and something delicious frying in oil—but every community brings its own flavor (literally and figuratively) to the Festival of Lights.
In the United States and much of Western Europe, Hanukkah often glows with a mix of tradition and modern festivity. Families gather around brightly lit menorahs, spin dreidels, and exchange gifts—an influence borrowed, in part, from the surrounding holiday season. City squares host public menorah lightings, and local bakeries tempt passersby with sufganiyot filled with everything from the traditional fruit jam or jelly to less common options like dulce de leche and pistachio cream. The scent of frying latkes and powdered sugar feels almost as synonymous with the holiday as the candlelight itself.
Across the ocean in Israel, the air hums with an unmistakable Hanukkah energy. Children march in parades carrying handmade menorahs, families sing out Maoz Tzur in warm living rooms, and every bakery window gleams with rows of jelly-filled doughnuts. Here, the focus is less on gift-giving and more on community, song, and light. Chanukah serves as a nationwide celebration of resilience that spills into every home and café.
Just a bit to the west, in Morocco and across North Africa, the celebration takes on its own rich and fragrant life. Instead of the round, jam-filled sufganiyot, Moroccan Jews make sfenj—airy, hand-shaped doughnuts fried in oil, dusted with sugar, or dipped in honey. The menorahs are often lit with olive oil, their golden flames flickering just as they did in the ancient Temple.
Travel east again to Iran, and Hanukkah has a quieter rhythm. For generations, Jews there have celebrated privately, lighting menorahs behind drawn curtains and sharing the story of the Maccabees within the safety of family walls. The holiday table might hold kuku sabzi, a fragrant herb omelet fried in oil, alongside quiet prayers and whispered songs in a celebration of endurance as much as light.
In India, Hanukkah shines with the vivid colors and spices of the subcontinent. Among the Bene Israel and Cochin Jewish communities, brass oil lamps glow in place of modern menorahs, their flames reflected in polished metal. The table overflows with coconut and chickpea sweets and crispy chana dal vada. In synagogues, families sing in a joyful blend of Hebrew, Marathi, and Malayalam in a soundtrack as layered as the culture itself.
For the Ethiopian Beta Israel community, Hanukkah’s revival has been part of a broader return to Jewish life and ritual since immigrating to Israel. Many families now blend Ethiopian flavors and music with modern Hanukkah traditions—latkes and sufganiyot sitting comfortably beside injera and stews. It’s a living example of how tradition evolves without losing its light.
In Greece and the Balkans, Hanukkah comes wrapped in the scent of loukoumades—tiny, golden dough balls drenched in honey. Families gather around to sing in Ladino, the centuries-old Judeo-Spanish language, with Ocho Kandelikas (“Eight Little Candles”) a perennial favorite. Its lilting melody turns each night into a small concert of joy.
And in Yemen, the holiday glows softly through simple clay lamps filled with olive oil. Families gather close, telling stories of the Maccabees and sharing fried flatbreads instead of sweets. There’s a purity to the celebration, a sense that the miracle of the oil is alive in every drop that fuels the flame.
Across continents and cuisines, the heart of Hanukkah remains the same: a celebration of hope, resilience, and renewal. Whether you’re biting into a honey-soaked pastry in Athens, lighting an oil lamp in Mumbai, or watching city lights shimmer off a menorah here in Delaware, each flame connects back to the same story—a small light that refused to go out.
