Holiday season on Cape Cod offers a variety of traditions

The eight days of Hanukkah, which come to a close today, are a busy and fun time for the De La Vega family of Orleans.

Melissa and Marcus De La Vega and the couple’s two oldest children, Ben, 11, and Rebecca, 8, light a candle each evening on the special nine-branched menorah, each successive candle lit from the central one. Daughter Maggie, at just 14 months old, joins the rest of the kids in wearing colorful Hanukkah pajamas, which mom Melissa says is a special treat – and photo op – each year for the family.

Hanukkah, or The Festival of Lights, is one of the other winter holidays celebrated in addition to Christmas. Winter Solstice, marking the longest night of the year and the return to longer days, is another cold-weather celebration.

The eight-day commemoration harks back to the second century BCE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem was rededicated to God after nearly being lost to its enemies, the Maccabees. It is told that a temple lamp containing only enough oil for one day miraculously burned for eight.

The De La Vega family, who hosted extended family for Thanksgiving, had 17 family members over for a big Hanukkah gathering a week later. Based on a lunisolar calendar, Hanukkah and other Jewish holidays are celebrated on a different date each year, so the festival sometime coincides with Thanksgiving or Christmas.

In honor of the miracle of the oil lamp at the Temple, the traditional menu includes many fried foods such as potato latkes and – a big hit with the kids – fried jelly donuts. Names are drawn in advance for an exchange of gifts, which traditionally are given to children.

While Hanukkah is not considered one of Judaism’s High Holy Days, it’s an important, fun time for families, says Melissa De La Vega. “We are all together (to enjoy) a peaceful holiday.”

Besides the nightly candle ceremony within her own family, they share a gift each night and often play a game of dreidel, spinning a four-sided top, each side inscribed with Hebrew letters that together spell out “a great miracle happened there.”

Hanukkah is also marked with community celebrations.

On Friday at the Cape Cod Synagogue in Hyannis, families gathered for a Shabbat meal in the synagogue’s outdoor heated tent. The evening featured Rabbi (David) Freelund’s "Famous Brisket.”

“It’s delicious,” says Sue Mager, director of the synagogue’s religious school. “He loves to cook.”

Another special treat, Melissa De La Vega says, is the communal candle lighting during the Friday synagogue service, where long board tables are set up at the front to hold all the congregants’ menorahs. With both rabbi and kids participating, the candles are lit “by the congregation,” along with the singing of blessings and Hanukkah songs.

“It’s just nice to shine a little light every night,” says Melissa.

Winter solstice

Light also plays a leading role in observances of the winter solstice, taking place on Dec. 21, marking the longest night and shortest day of the calendar and the return of sunlight to the world.

It is a time that has been celebrated for millennia around the globe. On that date, daylight is six hours, three minutes shorter than the light visible on the date of the June, or summer, solstice.

Teacher Petra Ledkovsky van Aarem has held a two-hour “Winter Solstice Yoga Ceremony – Return of the Light” for the past nine years at her studio, Orleans Yoga. This year’s ceremony (5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Dec. 21) will be her 13th, including several years when she held it at other studios prior to opening her own.

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“Being a New Englander, the winter solstice has always resonated with me,” she says, and the ancient winter observance of dark to light forms a “common thread” uniting several December holidays. She has always honored the date with an event of quiet and meditation, calling it “an invitation to decelerate.”

It’s all about “fire and light,” she says, and “comes at the peak of holiday madness,” providing “an opportunity for quiet within community,” and “a time for reflection, affirmation and hope.”

The ceremony begins with a quiet discussion on the significance of the spiritual traditions surrounding the solstice. It’s an opportunity, she says, for participants to reflect on intentions – “to put to rest those that didn’t come to fruition” in the past year and “honor those that did.” The yoga practice that follows includes a “rigorous” component, followed by “restorative postures and breath work,” ending with a guided meditation.

Van Aarem, who also offers yoga programs for the fall and spring equinox as well as the summer solstice, says the events help participants to ground themselves in the seasons and reflect on “what you’d like to grow, what you’d like to create.” (The class is $35. Register at Orleansyoga.com)

December solstice activities

All month: Winter Solstice Story Walk at Windmill Meadows in Drummer Boy Park, Route 6A, Brewster. Walk the nature trail and read the storybook “The Shortest Day” by Wendy Pfeffer, all about ancient solstice traditions.

Dec. 21: Cape Cod Winery hosts a Winter Solstice Soiree, noon to 6 p.m., with live music by The Oysters (4 Oxbow Road, East Falmouth).

Dec. 21: Kids ages 4 and up can create their own mason jar snow globes during “Happy Snow Globes for Winter Solstice,” 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Sturgis Library, Route 6A, Barnstable Village. All materials provided.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Hanukkah and Solstice are celebrated along with Christmas