Tel Aviv, Israel – There are a lot of good reasons to visit Tel Aviv at this time of year beyond the extraordinarily balmy weather – 33 degrees in the shade! Don’t forget your bathing suit. One of the best right now is that this Friday, starting at noon, the city will be holding a giant street party for Hanukkah, marking the Jews’ victory over the Hasmoneans in 167 BCE with a mass rave.
The event will include dozens of DJs offering a vast range of musical styles, appearing on five stages strategically placed along Ben Gurion Boulevard, near Ben Yehuda Street, which is very near the sea, and in the Kikar Atarim square on the seafront.
The “mainstream” stage, everything being relative, will feature the DJs Itay Galo, Nir Gildman, Nadav Spielman and Dalit Rochester.
The “Israeli” stage will be broadcasting only to earphones, which will be available for free – but you have to leave an identity card for deposit. No return earphones? No get card back. That stage will feature Eyal Katz, Dor Falk and Lior Brosh.
Then there’s the hip-hop stage starring Spikes, Blackout, Braindead and Smiley. And forget not the electronic stage, starring Red Axes, Stephan Bazbaz, Amir Egozi and Uriah Klapter.
The last but definitely not least is the gay stage, for the LGBT community and everybody else. This is along the lines of a weekly Tel Aviv gay party event called, of all things, “Dreck”.
In between dancing the day away you may want to check out other attractions. Kikar Atarim, famously one of the great architectural white elephants of Tel Aviv, will also feature graffiti painting on a designated wall. Maybe that can bring new life to the square. And during the course of the rave, the third candle for Hanukkah will be lit and warm sufganiyot will be sold, in case the raving brings you that craving for sugar. (haaretz-By Avshalom Halutz)
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Hanukkah 2013 begins in the evening of
Wednesday, November 27
and ends in the evening of
Thursday, December 5
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Why is Hanukkah Celebrated
To know the answer for why Hanukkah is celebrated, we would have to trace its history. The history of Hanukkah dates back to 165 BC. During that period, the land of Judea was ruled by Antiochus, a Syrian King. The King ordered the Jewish people to give up all their rituals and beliefs and start worshipping Greek Gods. The Greek soldiers also forced them to bow in front of a Greek God’s idol and eat the meat of a pig, which was strictly against the Jewish Law.
Out of fear, some Jews obeyed the King’s orders while the rest of the Jewish people were very anger and decided to fight back. This gave birth to a rebellion. The aggressive Jewish army fought for their religious freedom. The result was in favor of the Jews. They conquered the Greek soldiers and succeeded in restoring the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
Hanukkah is celebrated to commemorate the victory of Judah Maccabee’s Jewish army over the Greek soldiers and the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah marks the religious freedom of the Jewish community. The festival pays tribute to the Miracle of Oil, the purified oil that was worth lighting candle for only one day, but miraculously lit the candles on the Menorah for eight days continuously. (TIMENETWORK.CA)
