Cranberry Township will celebrate the eight-day observance of Hanukkah with a menorah lighting in front of the township's municipal center Dec. 22.

This is the seventh year for the event. In addition to the lighting celebration, the event features traditional foods, games and music starting at 5 p.m.

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C. It celebrates the successful revolt by Jewish Maccabee rebels against the forces of Antiochus IV, whose army had trashed the temple.

Once the invaders had been driven out, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the temple's ritual olive oil had been defiled, finding only a single container still sealed by the high priest.

Although it only contained enough oil to keep the menorah in the temple lit for a single day, it burned for eight days.