To celebrate Hanukkah this year, Chabad Tucson has invited the circus.
The Scottsdale-based Circus School of Arizona will perform at Chabad Tucson’s Hanukkah celebration Wednesday. And they’re bringing fire.
Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights, after all.
The eight-day holiday remembers the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in second-century B.C.E. after the Maccabees’ military victory over the Syrian-Greek army. Upon their return to the Temple, the Jews found enough oil for just one day of light. It lasted eight — a miracle, said Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin, the outreach director of Chabad Tucson. Hanukkah begins today at sunset and ends Wednesday, Dec. 24.
“Having a production like this allows us to share these universal messages of freedom, unity and community — very much fighting for who we are,” Ceitlin said. “Hanukkah was a battle over identity, at the end of the day. They were battling over their right to practice their faith.”
The Cirque du Chanukah event at Castlehill Country Day School, 3225 N. Craycroft Road, includes face painting, menorah lightings, the demonstration of an olive oil press, holiday foods and the circus show, among other activities. In addition to the lighting of the large menorah, individual menorahs provided by Chabad Tucson will include everybody — including Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale, who Ceitlin expects will attend.
All of it takes place in the open air as an indirect celebration of freedom to worship.
Last year, Chabad Tucson hosted its Hanukkah celebration at the Reid Park Zoo and attracted about 500 people. Although the group has celebrated Hanukkah for 31 years, Ceitlin said, it has not always put on large events such as the ones this year and last.
Through the music, fire and a dreidel contest that pits spinning children against each other, the Circus School of Arizona has a Hanukkah-centric show in the works, said Rachel Stegman, the show producer and school founder. Stegman’s Jewish upbringing has helped her infuse circus arts such as contortion, aerial acrobatics and fire acts with themes significant to Hanukkah.
“We have a living shamash, which is the candle that lights other candles of the menorah,” said Stegman, who has connections to circuses such as Cirque du Soleil. “Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, so we’re using LEDs as well, so we’re just going to light up the night.”
