It has been a year in which COVID-19 darkened our world, but there was plenty of light on a sunny day out at Princes Park in Caulfield South on Sunday.
Jewish children who attend government schools forgot about homework for an afternoon to mark the festival of Hanukkah.
The wider Jewish community’s annual Chanukah in the Park, held at Caulfield Park for thousands of people, was called off this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
But the United Jewish Education Board, a community organisation that provides education and cultural services and social events for Jewish children who attend state schools, was among smaller groups marking the festival in Princes Park.
The order of proceedings was playing traditional games, designing T-shirts and eating doughnuts. The doughnuts have a symbolic meaning: foods made with oil recall how a small group of Jewish people saved their temple from being destroyed by their enemies at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in about 160BC. They lit a lamp to rededicate the temple to God. Though they had only enough oil for one day, the light miraculously lasted for eight.
Today at Hanukkah, every night for eight nights, one candle is added to ceremonial menorahs, or candelabras, some in public places such as Federation Square.
Read the article by Carolyn Webb in The Age.