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Community Corner

Lighting the Menorah on Tolland Green

A hardy group of area residents bundled up against the cold and attended Tuesday night's Menorah lighting ceremony on the seventh day of Hanukkah this year.

Though temperatures dipped into the 2os Tuesday night, about a dozen area residents gathered for the lighting of the Menorah on the Green.

Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky of the Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury led the lighting ceremony. One light is added each night during the eight nights of Hanukkah, which is the annual remembrance of the Maccabees' victory over the Syrians in 165 B.C.E. and the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days during the purification and rededication of the holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The Hanukkah celebration on the green featured dancing, traditional music and  Jewish foods. Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. The eighth and final candle of the Menorah will be lit this evening, marking the end of this year's celebration of Hanukkah.

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Tolland resident Mark Naigles and Wolvovsky made the best of a cold evening performing a spritely dance to a recording of a traditional Jewish song together by the light of the Menorah.

"Dancing is just so fun," Naigles said. "Any excuse to dance is a good excuse."

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