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SALT LAKE CITY — A celebration of the season took place at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City Sunday with dozens of people from the Jewish community honoring the fourth day of Hanukkah.
The activities included music, ice skating and traditional foods.
"Anybody could come here and ice skate and have potato latkas and applesauce, right?!" Attendee Laura Kronenberg said.
Of course the celebration focuses on the real meaning of the holiday.
"It's one of the darkest times of the year, and so it just says there's light in the darkness," Rabbi Avremi Zippel said. "Every single night we add another light onto the menorah, which is the significance of always trying to add...to make something better, to make the world a better place, to make one a better person."
2013 provides a unique occurrence Hanukkah overlapped with Thanksgiving, but that wasn't the only buzz around the celebration.
"Vandals came by and brutally vandalized our giant menorah," Rabbi Benny Zippel said.
Rabbi Benny Zippel said a menorah on display outside his Salt Lake City Jewish center was vandalized late Saturday night.
He said someone cut three arms off the 6-foot aluminum menorah, including the wiring that enables it to be lit during Hanukkah.
Rabbi Benny Zippel said the act of vandalism will not overshadow this year's festival of lights.
"We believe very strongly in building on the positive, building on the good energy right here behind me of people rejoicing. And we will on the contrary, we will work extra hard on dispelling darkness by adding light," Zippel said.
