Public workshop gets menorah-makers ready for Hanukkah

The Chabad Center for Jewish Life, based in Newport Beach, organized a menorah workshop Sunday at the Home Depot in Costa Mesa.

The free event gave participants the chance to build and decorate their own menorahs to take home.

A menorah is a candelabrum used to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish eight-day wintertime Festival of Lights.

The celebration commemorates the victory in the second century B.C. by a small group of Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, that drove the Seleucid army from the Holy Land and reclaimed and rededicated the temple in Jerusalem.

When the Jews sought to light the temple’s menorah, they found only a one-day supply of sacred oil. However, it lasted eight days. Thus, the typical Hanukkah menorah has eight branches with an additional branch with which the others are lit.

This year, Hanukkah begins the evening of Dec. 12 and ends the evening of Dec. 20.