Elk Grove’s Old Town Plaza home to Hanukkah celebration Sunday. Here are all the details
Elk Grove’s Old Town Plaza will be the site of a Hanukkah celebration Sunday.
Hosted by the newly established Chabad of Elk Grove, Light Up Elk Grove runs 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the plaza, 9615 Railroad St., at Elk Grove Boulevard, and is free and open to the public.
The family celebration features a 9-foot LED menorah; a bounce house and face painting; and doughnuts, hot latkes and other refreshments.
“This will be a very relaxed Hanukkah celebration. It’s just a nice place to come celebrate Hanukkah,” said Rabbi Chaim Groner of Chabad of Elk Grove. “A big part of this is to celebrate Hanukkah publicly.”
Hanukkah begins Sunday evening and ends the evening of Dec. 26. The eight-day Jewish festival of lights is celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting and special prayers.
Hanukkah, or “dedication,” celebrates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem, retaken from the Greeks in the second century B.C.E. by a band of Jewish warriors known as the Maccabees.
The Maccabees found only a day’s worth of oil to light the temple’s menorah, but that supply burned for eight days, a miracle celebrated each Hanukkah with the festival of lights.
The Sunday ceremony, as with the Chabad’s Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services celebrating the Jewish New Year, have added significance for Elk Grove’s Jewish community. The Chabad center plans to open a permanent synagogue in the coming months, believed to be the first in the city.
For more information, email info@JewishElkGrove.com or call 917-724-4443.
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