11.30pm for the sixth night. The last two days of Chanukah we were just North of the Antarctic circle (around 65 degrees South), and although the sun did set (very late indeed, around 11pm) it never became dark at all, which presented us with the problem of when to light the Chanukah candles which are supposed to be lit after dark. After some thought I decided that the right time had to be a little after local midnight, since after that time it can only get lighter. This turned out to be around 1.30am so at that hour on the 1 January, 2006, which happened to be a Shabbat, we left the New Year party and went back to our cabin to make Havdalah and to light the candles for the seventh night of Chanukah. The only time in my life when I have lit Chanukah candles on what is the following day in the secular calendar. That trip was full of wonders, and Pirsumei Nisa to a group of penguins was one of them.
Why do we eat doughnuts on Chanukah? Barry Landy In some ways this is a trick question. My own personal response would be “but we don't” and indeed my parents and grandparents had never met that custom. For them the extra food item on Chanukah was Latkes (potato pancakes). For that the same question would apply "why Latkes?" The usual response would be "because of the miracle of the oil". That however raises lots of secondary questions, but the primary one is whether there was such a miracle at all. Our primary religious source for Chanukah is a strange passage in the Talmud, in Shabbat (21b), which starts “Mai Chanukah?”, or “what is Chanukah?” A very strange question to ask in the Talmud in an environment in which Chanukah was well known. Indeed the immediately prior passage on the same page discusses the order in which the candles are to be lit. Page 16
