Hanukkah, the annual Jewish Festival of Lights, overlaps with Christmas this year—an occurrence that hasn’t happened since 1978 and won’t take place again until 2027.
The Jewish winter holiday, which is also spelled Chanukah, begins this year on Dec. 24 and lasts eight days until Jan. 1, 2017. It is celebrated, in part, by the lighting of a menorah each night. Doing so represents the eight nights a small supply of oil miraculously lasted for a small group of Jewish people in 165 B.C. fighting to defeat the Greek army.
Read More: This Is the True Lesson of Hanukkah
Celebrants also often mark the occasion by eating fried foods like latkes, playing children’s games, including the dreidel, and exchanging gifts.
More Must-Reads From TIME
- Essay: The Tyre Nichols Videos Demand Solemnity, Not Sensationalism
- For People With Disabilities, Losing Abortion Access Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
- Inside the Stealth Efforts to Smuggle Starlink Internet Into Iran
- Natasha Lyonne on Poker Face and Creating Characters Who Subvert Leading-Lady Tropes
- How to Help the Victims and Community After the Monterey Park Shooting
- Why Grocery Staples Are So Expensive Right Now
- Quantum Computers Could Solve Countless Problems—and Create a Lot of New Ones
- Where to Watch All of the 2023 Oscar Nominees
- How to Be Mindful if You Hate Meditating