Chanukah festival coming to Janss Mall

From 5 to 7 p.m. on Wed., Dec. 28, Chabad of Thousand Oaks and the Janss Marketplace will host a Chanukah Family Festival. This free event is open to the community and will occur in front of the Mann Theater; the Marketplace is on the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks.

Among the festivities planned are live music, a juggling show, Hassidic breakdancers and face painting. Hot latkes and cocoa and jelly doughnuts will be served. Thousand Oaks Mayor Dennis Gillette will address guests and Rabbi Bryski and the menorah kindler will mount a cherry picker to light the 16-foot menorah.

Chanukah is known as the Festival of Lights. It recalls the victory more than 2,100 years ago of Jewish people over a ruthless enemy that had overrun the Holy Land and threatened to engulf the land and its people in

darkness. Weak in military might but spiritually strong, the Jews were victorious.

Their “miraculous” victory of religious freedom was followed by a second miraculous event, when the Maccabees poured their one-day supply of sacred oil into the menorah and rekindled the menorah that had been desecrated and extinguished by the enemy. The small amount of oil did not burn out at the end of the first day but continued to burn continuously for eight days, until the special process for preparing new oil could be completed.

Lighting the Chanukah menorah reminds Jews of these events and also serves as a symbol and a message of triumph of freedom over oppression, of spirit over matter, of light over darkness. During the holiday children play with a four-sided spinning top called a dreidel, which bears Hebrew letters that stand for “A great miracle happened there.” Another tradition is for children to receive “Chanukah gelt” or money, ofpoured ten in the form of chocolate coins that add to the festive spirit. For additional information about the event, please call Chabad at (805) 493-7776 or visit www.JewishTO.org.