While it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go, you might have noticed that one holiday endcap at the supermarket, filled with blue decorations, driedels, and maybe a small menorah. Yes, that’s right- it’s also Hanukkah. A winter holiday observed in the Jewish faith, there are many misconceptions about the Festival of Lights. Here are eight questions frequently asked about Hanukkah:

1. "Is Hanukkah, like, the most important Jewish holiday?"

No. The most important holidays occur in the fall, called the High Holidays, during a two week period in the fall including Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Until the 19th and 20^th centuries, Hanukkah was about as important as Flag Day. However, because it usually falls around Christmas, it’s marketed as a holiday about lighting candles and getting presents for a week straight.

2. "Do you really get a present every night and if you do, is it just, like, socks?"

“We get regular presents, just like anyone else,” junior Shana Latker said. “In my family, you get one present each night. Hanukkah isn’t really about the presents, though. It’s about being grateful for what you have.”

3. "Why are the candles lighted? What's the miracle? Something about one day's worth of oil burning for eight days?”

Hanukkah is Hebrew for rededication, and celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees triumphed over Syrian-Greek forces in 167 BC. After cleansing the temple, rabbis were ready to light the menorah, a seven branched candelabra lit each day in synagogue for various symbolic reasons. However, they could only find one day’s supply of oil to light it, and it lasted eight days, hence the miracle of the candlelight. During the festival, a candle is lit on a special menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum, called a Hanukkiah. Eight of the branches represent each night, and the center candle, a shamash, is used to light the others.

5. " What do homes that are both Christian and Jewish do during the winter holidays?”

“We light the candles on a few nights, and get presents on maybe, like, four days of Hanukkah,” freshman Gideon Pfeffer said. “Since my mom’s family is Catholic, we go to their house and celebrate Christmas as well.”

6. “What do Jews do on Hanukkah?”

Hanukkah, in modern times, is a holiday that is fun for children and teens and is celebrated through many traditions. Driedel is played, and children are often given gelt, or small amounts of coins on each night. Chocolate coins are also a common treat. Families often light the menorah- one candle each night- and recite special Hanukkah prayers. Food cooked in oil, as a nod to the origination of the holiday, is eaten. Latkes (potato pancakes) and jelly doughnuts, called sufgeniot, are popular.

7."Why does it keep changing dates?"

Jewish holidays correspond with the Hebrew calendar. Hanukkah starts on the 25^th of Kislev at sundown and lasts for eight days, until the 2^nd of Tevet. This year, Hanukkah is from December 20 to December 28.

8."Is it Chanukah or Hanukkah? I’ve seen it spelled both ways.”

Like the calendar, the Hebrew language doesn’t always completely translate to English. Chanukah, Chanukkah, and Chanuka are all alternate spellings.