Hanukkah or Chanukah? What's the right way to spell the holiday?
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- The Jewish holiday Hanukkah starts on Sunday night. Children will spin the dreidel, families will light the menorah and some will debate an age-old question.
What's the correct way to spell Hanukkah?
It's a holiday that lasts eight nights, with at least twice as many ways to spell it in English.
We made a list, checked it twice, and found 16 various spellings, each returning thousands of hits on Google.
"Is there consensus about anything in the Jewish community? No, there's no consensus," said Rabbi David Schuck at Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle.
Schuck prefers "Hanukkah," but even at his center the Judaica counter spells it "Chanukah."
"The translation of words in Hebrew is complicated into English because we have sounds in Hebrew that don't exist in English," said Schuck. "When I was a kid, I think the 'C-H' spelling was more popular, and today I think the 'H double K' spelling is more popular, more common."
RELATED: Celebrations underway as Hanukkah begins Sunday night
The Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz has a sweater with the three most common spellings of Hanukkah and uses the confusion as lyrical inspiration.
He's hosting a "How do you actually spell Chanukah" party next week.
"How do you spell it? There's really only one way to spell it in Hebrew. But in English there's a gazillion ways to spell it. And if it's someone's entryway into having a good time and meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds, that's what it's like. You celebrate different cultures and everyone should know a little bit of Hanukkah," said Kosha Dillz.
"We like to just argue about these things, but at the end of the day as long as you're bringing light into the world on Hanukkah, that's really all that matters," said Schuck.
So, however you spell it, happy Hanukkah!
