The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, often called the Festival of Lights, begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev (November – December) and is celebrated for eight days. The holiday is of non-Biblical origin, and is based on the events described in the First and Second Books of Maccabees. Both texts, much like the Third and Fourth Books, remain apocryphal for the Jews. According to tradition, the holiday commemorates the rededication of worship in the Jerusalem Temple or serves as a replica of the eight-day festivities that accompanied the completion of the Temple by King Solomon. The account in the Book of Maccabees also links the eight-day duration of Hanukkah with the eight days of the holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), which the Maccabean warriors were unable to celebrate. In the Talmudic tradition, the entire focus was placed on the miracle of the cruse of oil, and this version, which justified the custom of burning lights for eight days, was the one adopted by traditional Judaism (A. Unterman, Żydzi. Wiara i życie, Lodz 1989, pp. 223-225).
The brass Hanukkah lamp from the collection of the District Museum in Leszno has a triangular, openwork backplate, made in the form of vine. The whole is crowned with a palmette (stylised palm leaf) and adorned with delicate, stylised plant and geometric ornamentation. The hannukiyah has a rectangular base that is fixed to the backplate, with eight depressions for oil. The ninth oil burner, known as the shamash, in the shape of an oval container with a spout, is placed at the top, under the palmette.
The lamp was purchased in 2011 from pr. Szczepan Jan Szymandera of Pruśce near Rogoźno Wielkopolskie, who bought it at an online auction from a resident of Piaseczno. According to the oral account of the former owner, the item came from eastern Poland.
Dariusz Czwojdrak