Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins on different days in November or December each year depending on where it falls on the Hebrew calendar. The lighting of the National Menorah became an annual tradition starting in 1979.

Another, smaller menorah is lit during an annual White House Hanukkah ceremony. For the past two years, the White House has used a menorah donated by Congregation Beth Israel in New Orleans — one of the very few items from the congregation that survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The eight-day Hanukkah celebration commemorates the recapture and rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago. After a small band of Jews, the Maccabees, retook the temple and purified it, they rededicated it by lighting the eternal lamp. Although they had enough consecrated oil for only one day, it miraculously lasted eight days. Today, Jews light the menorah to symbolize this event.