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Festival of lights

P. SOLOMON DHANARAJ

The U.S. Postal service re-issued a 33c stamp for Hanukka on October 8, 1999. Hanukka is a Jewish `Festival of Lights' celebrated for eight days from the 25th of the Jewish month of Chislev (approximately 10 days before Christmas). The stamp features nine candles. The eight candles stand for the eight days of festival, and the central candle is used to light the others. Hanukka commemorates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 B.C. when it was purified, as the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanus had desecrated it, three years earlier.

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