For 2009 the US Postal Service is issuing a new design for this year’s Chanukah stamp. This year’s Menorah design is the 3rd in the Chanukah holiday series.

The new 2009 Hanukkah design features a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles. The menorah was designed by Lisa Regan of the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Tulsa, OK, and photographed by Ira Wexler of Braddock Heights, MD.

In 1996 the first Chanukah stamp, depicting a more abstract and playful version of a Menorah, was issued. In 2004 the 2nd design was issued featuring a Dreidel floating on a background of letters forming the word Hanukkah*

The New Chanukah stamp is now available at your local Post Office or you can order the stamp directly from the USPS website.

More: past Chanukah stamp designs

*FYI – Chanukah and Hanukkah are just different spellings of the same holiday. There is no definite English translation of the Hebrew word for Chanukah and in fact at last count – so far – we’ve found 13 different spellings of Chanukah. But don’t worry they are all the same holiday.

Simchat Torah (begins at sundown – Jewish)
The final day of the holiday of Sukkot, Simchat Torah is a Jewish holiday, which translates literally to the Joy of the Torah. The holiday marks the end of the annual cycle of reading the Jewish Bible and the beginning of the new cycle. In Israel, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated simultaneously.

Shemini Atzeret (begins at sundown – Jewish)
This Jewish holiday commemorates the end of Sukkot. In ancient Israel, this holiday marked the start of the rainy season.

image credit: via flickr

Sukkot (Jewish)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Join us for our celebration of the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot: Sukkot on the Net

The Story of Sukkot
The Holiday and its Meaning

The Sukkah
What is a Sukkah and Why is it Important?

Etrog, Lulav and the Four Species
How Do You Pronounce it? And What do you do with it?

Sukkot Craft Projects
Make a newspaper Lulav
Bulid your own PVC Pipe Sukkah

*Sukkot began last night at sundown

photo credit: via flickr

Sukkot (Jewish – begins at sundown)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Click to continue reading and to visit our Sukkot celebration

photo credit: via flickr

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore
About Sukkot, the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles
Oct 02 : Sukkot begins tonight
@ sundown

Did you know that the ninth day of Sukkot (the eighth day in Israel) is called Simchat Torah?

On this holiday, the final passage of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses, is read and the first passages of Genesis is begun anew. The holiday is celebrated by calling every person up to the Torah for an “aliyah”, or special blessing over the sacred text. Festive dancing is also common.

Sukkot is a jubilant celebration, known as Chag Ha’Sukkot or Feast of the Booths, which falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, just 5 days after the solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jewish families build their sukkah, or hut, in which they eat and sleep for the duration of the holiday. Recalling the impermanent structures that the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, Sukkot also has an agricultural significance: celebrating the conclusion of the fall harvest.

Hag Sameach! Sukkot begins tonight at sundown.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore
About Sukkot, the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles
Oct 01 : 1 day1 till Sukkot

Did you know that during Sukkot, many devout Jews not only eat all of their meals in their sukkah (singular of sukkot), but sleep there as well?

Did you know that Sukkot is a nine-day holiday everywhere outside of Israel, but in the Jewish homeland, the holiday is only celebrated for eight days?

Sukkot is a jubilant celebration, known as Chag Ha’Sukkot or Feast of the Booths, which falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, just 5 days after the solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jewish families build their sukkah, or hut, in which they eat and sleep for the duration of the holiday. Recalling the impermanent structures that the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, Sukkot also has an agricultural significance: celebrating the conclusion of the fall harvest.

Join us as we present a new ?Did You Know?? fact each day as we countdown to Sukkot! Sukkot begins Friday October 02nd at sundown. So stop by again tomorrow.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Hag Sameach! Happy Holidays!

Holidays on the Net is delighted to invite you to share in our celebration of the festive, nine-day Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

This jubilant celebration, known as Chag Ha’Sukkot or Feast of the Booths, falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, just 5 days after the solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jewish families build their sukkah, or hut, in which they eat and sleep for the duration of the holiday. Recalling the impermanent structures that the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, Sukkot also has an agricultural significance: celebrating the conclusion of the fall harvest.

Come learn more about the Story of the Sukkot and discover some of the festival’s central traditions, including waving the etrog, lulav and the four species. Get your children involved in the spirit of the holiday, with some fun-filled Sukkot crafts, including making your own sukkah out of PVC pipes.

Sukkot begins at sundown on Friday October 02nd. I look forward to celebrating with you soon at Holidays on the Net.

Happy Holidays! Hag Sameach!

Louie and the Holiday Elves
Holidays on the Net

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore
About Sukkot, the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles
Sept 30 : 2 days till Sukkot

Did you know that in addition to its Biblical roots, Sukkot is also an agricultural holiday?

The festival praises and offers thanksgiving to G-d for the bounty of the fall harvest. Among the rituals of Sukkot is the daily waving of the lulav and etrog, or the “four species“, evoking joy over the final fruit harvest. The ritual is also symbolic of G-d’s divine rule over nature.

Sukkot is a jubilant celebration, known as Chag Ha’Sukkot or Feast of the Booths, which falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, just 5 days after the solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jewish families build their sukkah, or hut, in which they eat and sleep for the duration of the holiday. Recalling the impermanent structures that the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, Sukkot also has an agricultural significance: celebrating the conclusion of the fall harvest.

Join us as we present a new ?Did You Know?? fact each day as we countdown to Sukkot! Sukkot begins Friday October 02nd at sundown. So stop by again tomorrow.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)

Did You Know?
Facts, Figures & Folklore
About Sukkot, the Jewish
Feast of Tabernacles
Sept 29 : 3 days till Sukkot

Did you know that the Jewish festival of Sukkot is known in English as the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles?

The holiday is named after the impermanent hut-like structures (sukkot) that Moses and Israelites built and lived in as they wandered in the desert for 40 years — after leaving Egypt before reaching the Promised Land.

Sukkot is a jubilant celebration, known as Chag Ha’Sukkot or Feast of the Booths, which falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, just 5 days after the solemn Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

On Sukkot, Jewish families build their sukkah, or hut, in which they eat and sleep for the duration of the holiday. Recalling the impermanent structures that the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land, Sukkot also has an agricultural significance: celebrating the conclusion of the fall harvest.

Join us as we present a new ?Did You Know?? fact each day as we countdown to Sukkot! Sukkot begins Friday October 02nd at sundown. So stop by again tomorrow.

Signup for our Did You Know? Holiday Countdown emails or follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/holidaysnet (@holidaysnet)