Menorah lighted in downtown Las Vegas
As neon lights shined down on a small crowd, the spirit of Hanukkah carried through Fremont Street Experience with traditional singing, dancing, prayer and the lighting of the first candle on a 20-foot menorah Thursday night.
Rabbi Shea Harlig of Chabad of Southern Nevada, lit the first candle on the Grand Menorah high above the people gathered below for the ceremony.
“By lighting the menorah, we want to show that even a little light dispels darkness,” he said Thursday.
While traditional Hanukkah songs blasted from speakers, people dressed in blue dreidel costumes pranced through the crowd.
“It’s our job to bring light to the world and stand up and say ‘Hey it’s going to be OK,’” Adam Kilbourn, a ceremony attendee, said. “This menorah is a physical representation of that idea.”
Normally, the ceremony includes a choir performance but because of COVID-19 regulations, a new act was added. Dressed in purple, Harlig’s grandkids danced to a traditional Hanukkah song, “I Have a Little Dreidel,” giving rise to a cheering crowd.
Hanukkah, also known as the Jewish Festival of Lights, honors the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the second century B.C. following victory over an occupying army, according to The Associated Press.
The eight-day festival also commemorates the story of the miracle of light during the rededication of the Second Temple, when a menorah with only enough oil to keep burning for a day lasted for eight days. The story of the miracle of light became a foundation for this tradition.
“Hanukkah is about the victory of light over darkness, good over evil,” Rabbi Levi Harlig, program director at Chabad of Southern Nevada, said.
The 25-year-old menorah will be on display on Fremont Street throughout the eight-day Hanukkah season from Dec. 1o to Dec. 18.
Contact Mya Constantino at mconstantino@reviewjournal.com. Follow @searchingformya on Twitter.
