ONEONTA - Hanukkah will begin today at sundown, the earliest the Jewish holiday has been celebrated in several hundred years.

"This coming year is a leap year (on the Jewish calendar) so an extra month is added at the end, and that moves everything up," said Barbara Roberts, a cantor at Oneonta's Temple Beth-El.

Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Israel about 2,400 years ago.

The holiday lasts eight days to symbolize how one day's worth of oil miraculously burned for eight.

On each day of the festival, a corresponding number of candles are lit on a menorah, a special Hanukkah candelabrum.

"It's a period of time when we focus on rededicating ourselves to our faith," Roberts said.

Members of the temple will celebrate with a pot luck dinner, but no additional festivities are planned, said Roberts, explaining that the festival is a minor holiday and essentially a home-based celebration.

"Hanukkah becomes a more-recognized holiday because of the proximity to Christmas," she said. "When you live in a secular society, families struggle with their kids in terms of Christmas being celebrated all around them."

Roberts said that some families will give children small gifts on each day of Hanukkah, and a larger gift on the final day. Another Hanukkah tradition is eating foods fried in oil, such as latkes — or potato pancakes, she said.