Hanukkah 2026: dates, traditions and where to mark it

Hanukkah 2026 dates, night by night

The Jewish calendar counts each day from sundown. So the first night falls on Friday 4 December, at the candle lighting before Shabbat. Day 1, 25 Kislev, covers Saturday 5 December, and day 8, 2 Tevet, covers Saturday 12 December. Each night adds one candle to the hanukkiah, up to eight.

Source: Hebcal, Hanukkah 2026, checked on 12 October 2026; the day count and the last night are confirmed by the Chabad.org Hanukkah 2026 FAQ, checked the same day. The rows for 6 to 9 December follow the rule of one extra candle each night (same FAQ).

The Hebrew date names the civil day; the candles of each night are lit at sundown. The times in the table come from Hebcal and are only a guide: they vary by city and by day. For an exact time at a specific place, a local sunset calculator gives the precise time. The times for the middle nights haven’t been checked for this article, so don’t work them out from another calendar.

The last night deserves attention. The eighth candle is lit on Friday 11 December, before Shabbat begins, at 4:35 pm in Paris and 3:55 pm in Jerusalem according to Hebcal. Remembering « 4 to 12 December » isn’t enough: the festival ends on Saturday 12 at nightfall, but the last candle is lit the day before. According to the Chabad 2026 FAQ, the last candles are lit on Friday afternoon, before Shabbat.

The civil calendar doesn’t follow the Jewish calendar, and Hanukkah moves through the Gregorian calendar every year. Hanukkah 2027 is already scheduled from Friday 24 December 2027 to Saturday 1 January 2028, according to Hebcal, checked on 12 October 2026.

Where the festival comes from: the Maccabees and the Temple

Hanukkah, meaning « dedication » or « inauguration » in Hebrew, commemorates the reclaiming of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees around 164 BCE. They had fought the Seleucid Empire, which had desecrated the sanctuary. According to Wikipedia’s Hanukkah article, checked on 12 October 2026, the festival is fixed on 25 Kislev in the Hebrew calendar.

It isn’t a biblical festival: the rabbis established it, and tradition describes it as a relatively minor festival in religious terms. Its best-known story comes from the Talmud (tractate Shabbat): a flask of pure oil, enough for one day, is said to have burned for eight days. Encyclopedic sources present this story as Talmudic tradition, not as established historical fact. That’s how it should be read.

The candle-lighting rules have a school dispute too. The House of Hillel recommends lighting one candle on the first night, then one more each night. The House of Shammai recommends the reverse, starting from eight candles. Jewish law follows Hillel’s position, the one practised today.

Traditions: what happens over the eight nights

The hanukkiah and the flame

The hanukkiah, or Hanukkah menorah, has nine branches: eight for the eight nights, and a ninth, the shamash (« servant » or « guardian »), used to light the others. Chabad.org explains that one candle is added each night and that you always start with the newest one. According to Welcome Israel, the candles should burn for at least 30 minutes, and they’re lit at sundown or just after.

An electric hanukkiah can decorate a window, but it doesn’t do the ritual: the Chabad 2026 FAQ reminds you that a real flame must be lit. The hanukkiah is often placed near a window or a door so passers-by can see it, because tradition holds that the light makes the miracle visible.

Two blessings are said each night, and the shehecheyanu blessing is added on the first night (Chabad 2026 FAQ). The first lighting is therefore the busiest in gestures, before the ritual becomes routine.

Games, coins and food

The dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with four Hebrew letters, nun, gimel, hei and shin, which form an acronym for a phrase meaning « a great miracle happened there. » In Israel, the version says « here » (Welcome Israel). People often play with gelt, coins in silver or chocolate given to children (Wikipedia).

Frying recalls the miracle of the oil. Latkes, potato pancakes, are served with sour cream and apple sauce. Sufganiyot, round jam-filled doughnuts coated in sugar, are very popular in Israel. A recipe for a jam-filled doughnut appears in a Nuremberg cookbook from 1485 (Wikipedia, Sufganiyah article, checked on 12 October 2026).

Polish immigrants brought the ponchik to Mandatory Palestine, and the Histadrout, founded in 1920, pushed to replace homemade latkes with doughnuts that bakeries could make more easily. Today the usual fillings are strawberry or raspberry jam, then dulce de leche and chocolate or vanilla cream.

Hanukkah and Christmas: a cultural closeness, not a religious one

Christmas Day falls two weeks after the last night of Hanukkah 2026. Yet the two festivals have no liturgical link. Hanukkah follows the Hebrew lunisolar calendar and never falls on a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar. If the comparison took hold, it’s because of the festival’s history in the West: Wikipedia notes that its closeness to Christmas has given it particular cultural weight in the Western world.

Gifts and chocolate coins are part of the atmosphere, especially for children. No ritual requires them, though. Presenting Hanukkah as a gift holiday would be a misreading.

If your December takes you to Prague, the Prague Christmas markets 2026 guide covers the city’s markets, and the best day trips from Prague guide helps you plan your days.

Four mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up the first night with the first calendar day. The first candle is lit on Friday 4 December, not Saturday 5, even though the 5th is day 1 of the Hebrew count.
• Taking the end of Shabbat for the lighting time. Some calendars show a Shabbat end or exit time, which isn’t when the candles are lit. Use the lighting time, and check it for your city.
• Buying an electric hanukkiah and stopping there. It decorates, but the ritual calls for a real flame (Chabad 2026 FAQ).
• Planning around a 2025 programme. Last year’s events give a format, not a schedule. For 2026, no public programme had been found when this was written.

Where to mark it in 2026: what’s announced and what isn’t

No official public lighting programme has been found for 2026 as of 12 October 2026, in Paris or in the other cities often mentioned. Past editions give an idea of scale, but they guarantee nothing for December. The table only includes what could be checked.

Sources: Jewish Museum in Prague, homepage; GOV.UK, Israel travel advice; Wikipedia, 2025 Bondi Beach shooting. Checked on 12 October 2026.

Public lightings are usually announced locally as the festival approaches. So check the councils, Jewish communities and local authorities in the city where you’ll be staying. In Jerusalem, Welcome Israel (checked on 12 October 2026) describes large hanukkiot set up near public buildings. That page isn’t dated: it describes a custom, not a 2026 programme.

Israel and Jerusalem: read the advice zone by zone

The UK government’s travel advice for Israel (FCDO) was updated on 22 July 2026, and it was still in force when this was written, on 12 October 2026. It mentions regional tensions, recent strikes and retaliatory attacks, gatherings that can turn violent around anniversaries and major events, cancelled flights, and airspace closures at short notice. It advises against all travel to some areas, and against non-essential travel to others.

Check your own government’s advice as well. The French Foreign Ministry page could not be read when this article was written, so read it alongside the UK advice and follow both up to the day you travel.

For Jerusalem, public transport is in principle stopped from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening, during Shabbat. The 2026 transport timetables for the festival dates haven’t been checked: ask the local operator before you plan your journeys.

Sydney: the Bondi Beach attack

On 14 December 2025, an attack targeted the « Chanukah by the Sea » gathering organised by Chabad at Archer Park, in Bondi Beach, Australia. According to Wikipedia, checked on 12 October 2026, the attack killed 16 people, including one attacker, and wounded 40 to 41 others; some media report 15 deaths. The official Australian toll hasn’t been used here. Since then, security reinforcements have been announced for Hanukkah gatherings in several cities. Check with the organisers before you attend a public gathering.

What other guides don’t tell you

Three points that short answers about Hanukkah 2026 don’t always give. Each one points to a source checked on 12 October 2026.

• The last candle is lit on Friday 11 December, not Saturday 12. The festival ends on Saturday 12 at nightfall, but the eighth candle is lit the day before, before Shabbat (Hanukkah 2026 FAQ, Chabad.org, checked on 12 October 2026).
• The UK advice for Israel has to be read zone by zone. It doesn’t treat the whole country the same way, and it changes: its last update was on 22 July 2026 (GOV.UK, Israel travel advice, checked on 12 October 2026).
• Hanukkah 2027 is already scheduled. It’s set to run from Friday 24 December 2027 to Saturday 1 January 2028 (Hebcal, Hanukkah 2027, checked on 12 October 2026).