Hanukkah begins in Colorado Springs with a Menorah parade and celebration
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Sunday, Dec. 18 marks the first night of the Jewish Holiday, Hanukkah, which continues for eight days. In Colorado Springs, this also includes the annual Menorah parade.
Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil. When the Jewish people came back to their temple to rebuild it and light the Menorah, the one jug of oil they found lasted eight whole days.
"The celebration every year is to commemorate two parts of the miracle," Chabad-Lubavitch Southern Colorado Director Rabbi Moshe Liberow said. "The miracle of the victory of the war and the miracle of oil lasting that long."
The Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center in Colorado Springs helps connect Jewish people throughout Southern Colorado to others in the community, and to resources throughout the region.
"Throughout the year we have ongoing classes, programs, events, workshops, and home visits reaching out to bring the message of Judaism in an educational, meaningful way to all ages in the Jewish community," Liberow said.
The organization does a lot of outreach with small towns around the region.
"So Hanukkah, the message is that a person should realize that they are a light and they can make a big difference," Liberow said. "Like Hanukkah the Menorah has always increased every night, another light is increased to emphasize that the goodness. There's no measure or limit, and a person should always be on an ongoing journey of increasing and adding to what they accomplished yesterday."
This Jewish Center has served the region for 22 years, and has brought a Menorah parade to the community for a number of years.
"The parade is a very beautiful way to bring the idea of the miracle to the public because Hanukkah has a great emphasis on publicizing the miracle," Liberow said.
