Hanukkah
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148 free Hanukkah trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Hanukkah trivia questions with answers. How well do you know the Festival of Lights? From the Maccabean revolt to Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song, this quiz covers the history, traditions, foods, prayers, and pop culture of Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah or Hannukah). Light the hanukkiah, spin the dreidel, and test your knowledge across 148 questions spanning ancient miracles to modern celebrations.
30 of 148 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Hanukkah starts in one Hebrew month and ends in the next: which two months does it span?
Kislev and Tevet
It starts on the 25th of Kislev, and because Kislev can have 29 or 30 days, the holiday sometimes ends on the 2nd of Tevet and sometimes the 3rd.
Q 02How many branches does a Hanukkah lamp have?
9
The 9 branches are eight for the lights of the eight nights plus a ninth, set at a different height from the rest, for the helper light.
Q 03What food, fried in oil, is a traditional Hanukkah dish made from potatoes?
Latkes
They are an Ashkenazi staple; in Israel they have largely been displaced by jam-filled doughnuts, partly through the influence of the trade unions.
Q 04Which set of psalms is recited in full on each of Hanukkah's eight days?
Hallel
Hallel, Psalms 113 to 118, is sung in full on all eight days of Hanukkah, a minor festival, yet only in a shortened form on the last six days of Passover.
Q 05What type of currency-shaped chocolate is given to children during Hanukkah?
Gelt
Gelt is Yiddish for money: the foil-wrapped chocolate coins grew out of an older custom of handing children real money at Hanukkah.
Q 06According to 1 Maccabees, the Temple altar was rededicated on the anniversary of which event?
Its desecration
Its desecration: the new altar was dedicated 'at the very season and on the very day' the old one had been profaned, turning the date of an outrage into a festival.
Q 07In the Hanukkah story, the single cruse of pure oil the Maccabees found still bore whose unbroken seal?
The high priest's
The high priest's seal showed that this one jar had not been touched when the rest of the Temple's oil was defiled, so it alone was fit to light the lamp.
Q 08Which comedian is famous for performing The Chanukah Song?
Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler first performed The Chanukah Song on Saturday Night Live in 1994. The song lists famous Jewish celebrities and became a Hanukkah pop culture staple.
Q 09On which night of Hanukkah are all the candles on the lamp lit together?
The eighth
The eighth night is the only one when the whole row burns, because one light is added each evening; the first night has a single flame beside the helper.
Q 10In the 1986 film An American Tail, what Hanukkah gift does the mouse Fievel receive?
A cap
A cap, handed down by his father at the family's Hanukkah celebration; moments later Cossacks and their cats burn the village, and the Mousekewitzes sail for America.
Q 11What jelly-filled pastry is a traditional Hanukkah treat in Israel?
Sufganiyot
Sufganiyot are the jam doughnuts that Polish Jewish immigrants brought to Israel as the ponchik; the Hebrew name was coined from a Talmudic word for spongy dough.
Q 12What is the helper candle on a hanukkiah called?
Shamash
The shamash, Hebrew for 'attendant', exists because the eight Hanukkah lights are only to be looked at: any light people actually use is meant to come from the extra one.
Q 13Which Seleucid king outlawed Jewish practices and desecrated the Temple, sparking the Maccabean revolt?
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
Antiochus IV Epiphanes turned the Jerusalem sanctuary over to a syncretic pagan cult in 167 BCE, and was the first Seleucid king to put divine epithets on his coins.
Q 21Which hymn is recited immediately after the Hanukkah lights have been kindled?
Hanerot Halalu
Hanerot Halalu, 'these lights', is recited right after kindling; it declares the lights sacred, to be looked at and not used for any practical purpose, which is why the helper light exists.
Q 22What family name did the Maccabees belong to?
Hasmonean
Hasmonean was the family's own name: it turned rebel leadership into a hereditary line of high priests and kings, whose last ruler was executed by the Romans under Mark Antony.
Q 23In Israel, how is the last letter on the dreidel different from the Diaspora version?
Shin is replaced with Pei
Q 14In which direction are candles placed in the hanukkiah each night?
Right to left
Candles are placed in the hanukkiah from right to left (adding a new candle to the left each night), but they are lit from left to right, so the newest candle is always lit first.
Q 15What does the Hebrew phrase 'Nes Gadol Haya Sham' mean?
A great miracle happened there
A great miracle happened there: the four initials sit on the dreidel, but the letters came first, as the rules of a German gambling top, and the motto was read into them later.
Q 16Which Hanukkah hymn is called 'Rock of Ages' in English?
Ma'oz Tzur
Ma'oz Tzur is sung to a tune thought to be borrowed from folk song, and 'Rock of Ages' is the title of a loose English version rather than a literal translation.
Q 17Which special passage is inserted into the Amidah and Grace After Meals during Hanukkah?
Al HaNissim
Al HaNissim, 'for the miracles', thanks God for handing 'the many into the hands of the few' and never mentions the oil that burned for eight days.
Q 18The Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids took place in which of these periods?
100s BCE
The main phase of the revolt ran from 167 to 160 BCE, but fighting with the Seleucids and Hellenized Jews dragged on until 134 BCE.
Q 19What is the Hebrew word for the dreidel spinning top?
Sevivon
Sevivon is built on a Hebrew root meaning 'to turn', as dreidel is on Yiddish dreyen; the toy itself was borrowed from a gambling top that Christians played at Christmastime.
Q 20On which TV show did Seth Cohen popularize the concept of 'Chrismukkah'?
The O.C.
The O.C.'s Seth Cohen, son of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother, merged his parents' holidays into Chrismukkah: eight days of presents, then one day of many presents.
Shin is replaced with Pei on most Israeli dreidels because the word that letter stands for changes: in Israel, the events the motto recalls happened on the spot, not far away.
Q 24Which U.S. president hosted the first official White House Hanukkah party?
George W. Bush
George W. Bush built the 2001 party around lighting a menorah in the White House residence, which he called a first in American history; the century-old lamp was borrowed from New York's Jewish Museum.
Q 25What does the name 'Maccabee' most likely mean?
The Hammer
The Hammer is the usual reading, though scholars are not unanimous: the nickname suits a commander who kept striking first, much as England's Edward I was called 'Hammer of the Scots'.
Q 26Why does Hanukkah fall on a different Gregorian date each year?
Its calendar follows the moon
Its calendar follows the moon: twelve lunar months fall days short of a solar year, so a leap month is added in seven years out of every nineteen, which keeps Hanukkah from drifting toward summer.
Q 27Why are fried foods traditional at Hanukkah?
To recall the miracle of the Temple oil
To recall the miracle of the Temple oil, anything fried counts; for the lamp itself the rabbis preferred olive oil, whose light they found clearer.
Q 28Hanukkah tradition honours which heroine, who got an enemy general drunk and then cut off his head?
Judith
Judith's book makes its villain a general of the Assyrians and never mentions Hanukkah, yet later Jewish tradition tied her victory to the festival anyway.
Q 29What structure did the Maccabees rededicate after their victory?
The Second Temple
The Second Temple was cleansed with the enemy still next door: a Seleucid garrison held the citadel beside it, so fighters were posted to keep it busy while the priests worked.
Q 30In which Jewish text is the miracle of the oil lasting eight days first recorded?
Talmud
The Talmud records it in tractate Shabbat 21b; the Books of Maccabees describe the rededication and the lamps but never mention oil lasting eight days.