Menorah lighting at Fashion Island opens Hanukkah celebration

The Chabad Center for Jewish Life presented the annual menorah-lighting ceremony Sunday at Fashion Island in Newport Beach to celebrate Hanukkah.

The event in the mall’s Atrium Garden Court featured music performed by special-needs children, holiday crafts and treats, face painting, balloon animals and donations to a toy drive for needy children.

Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is observed by lighting the menorah, a type of candelabrum, each day for eight days. This year the holiday is being celebrated through Dec. 14.