Here comes Hanukkah: Jewish community in St. John's light the menorah

Rex McGuire has a big week ahead of him — the eight-year-old celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas.

His mother, Andrea Munro, said she likes it when the two holidays fall on the same week. Hanukkah began Sunday and lasts until Dec. 30 this year.

"It's really fun. It doesn't always happen that Hanukkah falls exactly when Christmas is, but when it does happen it's kind of nice to get everything — all the craziness happens at once," she said.

Munro was raised in a multi–faith household, with a practising Jewish father. When her son showed interest in the faith, she helped to introduce him to all of Hanukkah's festivities.

Dreidels — small, wooden spinning tops — for instance, are part of Rex's holiday celebrations.

"It's a pretty fun game to play. There's a scroll that Jewish people have, and they used to take little bits of it and hollow out dreidels and hid it in there, so when soldiers came…. They were worshipping but it looked like they were gambling," said Rex.

The Hanukkah menorah has become a symbol of religious freedom and tolerance- Rabbi Chanan Chernitsky

"Sometimes it can be hard to remember all of the things about Hanukkah, because there's so many important things."

He said the best part of getting to experience two holidays isn't all of the presents.

"Spending a large time with family, 'cause it's really fun," he said. "Even though yesterday the snow got really icy and it wasn't really fun."

A candle lighting took place in Bannerman Park on Sunday, with members of the St. John's Jewish community gathering to celebrate the ancient festival. Joining them was Lt.-Gov. Judy Foote, who shared the moment on Twitter.

Rabbi Chanan Chernitsky, who led the ceremony, said Hanukkah "teaches us that our passion, our ability to dream, cannot be taken away."

More than 100 people showed up to the lighting, said Chernitsky, which was part of a broader movement of public menorah ceremonies in cities across Canada and the United States. 

"It's an essential part of Hanukkah actually to publicize the Hanukkah miracle," he said. "And more recently, the Hanukkah menorah has become a symbol of religious freedom and tolerance."

Chernitsky said the ceremony is historically meant to represent two miraculous events: the victory of a small Jewish army over Greek forces, and their relationship with pure olive oil during a moment of that conflict. 

"The second miracle is that they didn't have any pure olive oil to use to light the menorah, which was lit in the temple. Every day the family found this one jug that had only enough oil to last one night, but miraculously lasted for a total of eight days."

He said he was touched by the turnout for Sunday's celebration, estimating that about half of the crowd were not from the Jewish community.

"I think it speaks volumes about Newfoundlanders about how open-minded they are and not judgmental," he said.

"They came out in this very rough weather, whether it was to show support, or because the message of Hanukkah spoke to them."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador