Why eat fried foods during Hanukkah?

When the Maccabees liberated Jerusalem and entered the Temple, they wanted to light the Menorah. But then they discovered that all of the oil flasks were desecrated by the Greeks except for one.

This lone small flask should have lasted only for a day, but a miracle occurred and it had enough oil for lighting the Menorah for eight days! Because of that and in order to commemorate the miracle, it is customary to eat fried or baked in oil foods during Hanukkah.

Some of the most popular traditional foods are “sufganiyot” {סופגניות} (some kind of a doughnut) and “levivot”{לביבות} (potato pancakes).

“Beteavon!” {בתיאבון!} – Hebrew for bon appetit!