We hope you’ll enjoy our guide to some Hanukkah activities, music and traditions to bring light to these darkest days of the year. May this Festival of Lights bring blessings of happiness and health upon you and all your loved ones!

CAMMAC Artist-in-residence Mark Djokic and Bravo Niagara! invite you to watch the world premiere of “Sounds of Hope: Menorah”.

This stirring composition for violin and piano will be performed by Montreal-based violinist Marc Djokic, a young dynamic presence in the violin world, and pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, C.M., an internationally renowned interpreter of contemporary music.

“Menorah” is a technically demanding composition for violin and piano… It is cast in two contrasting movements, “Shabbat Blessing” and “Dark Kaddish” depicting two opposite psychic patterns manifesting at times of personal and collective crisis, one of tightly holding on to something old and trusted and another of questioning it and, with it, our shared understanding of humanity and its shuttered assurances. Not being a Jew myself, it is this larger canvas that has allowed me to enter the subject of the Holocaust and document my own psychic reactions to it, particularly at a time in our collective existence when dark clouds are again assembling in the horizon and, if we do not study and learn from history, we may be condemned to repeat it. – Christos Hatzis

For a great roundup of classics from every possible genre of music, consult The Forward’s “A Comprehensive Guide To The Best Hanukkah Songs Of All Time”.

Discovewr a Hanukkah playlist from l’Institut européen des musiques juives:

Read about the traditions of Hanukkah, and discover a great selection of traditional music for Hanukkah (adapted from the liner notes to the CD A Hanukkah Celebration by Neil W. Levin).

NPR goes beyond the dreidel with an overview of Hanukkah songs over time.

Listen to Israeli singer Hadassah Berne’s beautiful rendition of Rock of Ages:

Happy Hanukkah!