Hanukkah  Happy Hanukkah
From 101lifeStyle.com
Customs And Rituals Of Hanukkah: Hanukkah is a simple festival with rituals which are simple too and they are performed for eight nights and days of the festival. Some rituals are performed at home with the family and some are practiced with the community as one.
The Jews have their regular daily prayers but during Hanukkah, prayers are said while lighting the Menorah to show their faith in God. According to Jewish law, there is no such custom that being a festival you can’t perform your duties and go to work. One can go to work and lead a normal life just like other days. The children go to school and the adults go to work regularly. The employees of any company are not given off for Hanukkah and the children get maybe a couple of days off out of the eight days of Hanukkah.
According to the old Jewish rituals and customs, a single candle has to be lit each night for eight consecutive days. Shamash which is an extra candle, acts as a guard to the other candles and it is used to light the other candles. It is kept in a faraway location from the other eight candles, usually at a higher or lower level than the others. This extra candle is used for the purpose to remind people of the prohibition that this Menorah is used solely not for the purpose of giving light or burning it on days other than Hanukkah. It is used to remind us of the miracle that God bestowed upon us. These candles in the Menorah differ from the candles used for Sabbath which are meant to give light. So if a person were to need extra illumination on Hanukkah, the shamash candle was there as a reminder and one wouldn’t use the prohibited lights. The shamash candle is usually lit first to light the other candles two of the candles are lit up on the first night, three on the second night and then on the eighth day, nine candles are lit.
 In ancient times, only candles were lit using a menorah but in this modern age, oil lamps can be used too. Electric lights are used where there is prohibition of using open flames, like a hospital room. All Jewish homes have some sort of Menorah available at home, it is not necessarily the traditional type Menorah but it could be a lamp holder or special candelabra which are exclusively used for Hanukkah. It holds eight lights plus one extra for the Shamash light. In Israel, it is usually known as a "chanukkiyah". The Jews from Central and Eastern part of Europe call it a "Hanukkah menorah," though chanukkiyah is a more name. Some Jews from West European, Mediterranean and Latin America just call it "a Hanukkah". The menorah belonging to the Temple which is described in Exodus 25:31 ff, symbolizing Judaism, has six branches plus a central shaft, for a total of seven lamps.  The Eight Days Of Hanukkah
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