Hanukkah (also spelled “Chanukah”) is an eight-day Jewish festival which begins this evening at sundown. The festival commemorates events that took place in Judea more than 2,000 years ago, when the Syrian king Antiochus ordered the Jews to abandon the Torah and publicly worship the Greek gods. This act provoked a rebellion led by Judas Maccabeus, climaxed by the retaking of the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by the Syrians. In an eight-day celebration, the Maccabees (as the rebels came to be known) cleansed and rededicated the Temple (Chanukah means “dedication”). According to the Talmud, there was only enough consecrated oil to relight the candelabra for one day, yet, miraculously, it remained lit for eight days. The central feature of the observance of Chanukah is the nightly lighting of the Chanukiah, an eight-branched candelabra with a place for a ninth candle, the shammes, used to light the others. One candle is lit on the first night of Chanukah, and an additional candle is lit on each successive night, until, on the eighth night, the Chanukiah is fully illuminated. Learn more about Hanukkah and see recipes!
Daily Calendar for Friday, December 4, 2026
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Friday, December 4, 2026
Question of the Day
What causes the leaves on my rubber plant to turn yellow?
Yellowing leaves on indoor rubber plants is a common problem. It is usually a sign of overwatering. Check your plant to make sure it has adequate bottom drainage to draw excess water away from the roots. If your plant has been in the same container for a long time, remove it and its root ball and loosen the bound roots. Remove some of the soil at the top of the ball, then transplant the tree in a larger pot.
Advice of the Day
Create more space; donate used books to your local library.
Home Hint of the Day
To discourage a cat from scratching upholstered furniture, give him a scratching post — 2 feet high and covered with carpet on a base large enough so that the cat won’t tip it over. Use scrap plywood and boards for a do-it-yourself project.
Word of the Day
Hail
Hail falls mainly in the summer. It forms in thunderstorm clouds, which can extend high into the atmoshpere where extremely cold temperatures prevail. When a cloud releases rain, the rain can be forced upward, where it freezes into tiny ice pellets. If updrafts keep buffeting the pellets, layer upon layer of frozen water will be added to the pellets until, finally, hailstones are released.
Puzzle of the Day
What do men never wish to be in and yet labor hard to possess?
Bonds
Died
- Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu (French clergyman and statesman) –
- Frank Zappa (musician) –
- Besse Cooper (world’s oldest person at time of her death) –
Born
- Thomas Carlyle (historian) –
- Deanna Durbin (actress) –
- Ed Flesh (designer of the wheel on the TV game show Wheel of Fortune) –
- Roberta Lynn Bondar (astronaut) –
- Jeff Bridges (actor) –
- Marisa Tomei (actress) –
- Jay-Z (hip hop artist) –
Events
- At Fraunces Tavern in New York’s lower Manhattan, George Washington bade farewell to his officers of the Continental Army, before traveling to Annapolis, Maryland, to resign his commission as commander-in-chief –
- National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry founded –
- Boss Tweed escaped jail –
- Crew of shipwrecked tanker Kyzikes rescued, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina –
- In its first aerial attack on Italy, the US bombs Naples –
- First television appearance of Marcel Marceau –
- Matisse’s Le Bateau rehung after being upside down in The Museum of Modern Art for 47 days, New York City –
- Brenda Lee’s Christmas hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, 65 years after its original release –
Weather
- New Haven, Connecticut, received 20 inches of snow in the first of two major snowstorms that December –
- The temperature dropped from 52 degrees F to 18 degrees F in 20 minutes, Livingston, Montana –
- Central Park in NYC reached 72 degrees F –