ZAGREB, December 3, 2018 – A ceremony of menorah lighting in Zagreb Main Square on Sunday evening was held to celebrate this year’s eight-day Hanukkah holiday in Croatia, with the president of the Jewish organisation “Menora”, Rabbi Pinhas Zaklos, and Mayor Milan Bandić kindling together the eight lights.
The Hanukkah lights on a nine-branched menorah, or ‘Hannukah candelabrum’, are kindled every night of Hanukkah (Chanukah).
Earlier on Sunday, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković extended their best wishes to the Jewish faithful on the occasion of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights.
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, and may occur from late November to late December according to the Gregorian calendar.
Jewish families around the world will gather Sunday evening to celebrate Hanukkah and light the first candles on their menorahs. The holiday celebrates the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem following a massacre ordered by the Greek-Syrian King Antiochus IV that initially pushed Jews from the city.
The celebrations begin December 2 and last through December 10.
The 10th Israeli Film Week also started on Sunday in Zagreb’s Kaptol Boutique cinema and will run through December 6, featuring ten recent feature films and two documentaries.
The films talk about everyday lives, loves, growing up, faith, conflict, all topics which occupy Israelis and are close to people around the world, Mirjana Slaj-Froelich, cultural attaché of the Israeli Embassy, which organises the event, said on Friday.
Israeli cinema is relatively young, films began to be made shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel, and the first film lab was founded by enthusiasts in an abandoned wood shed in 1949, she said.
Since then, many films have been made, achieving more or less success at home and abroad, and Israeli cinema began to blossom at the turn of the millennium, she added.
Entry to all screenings is free.
For more on the relations between Croatia and Israel, click here.
