For 2009 the US Postal Service is issuing a new design for this year’s Chanukah stamp. This year’s Menorah design is the 3rd in the Chanukah holiday series.

The new 2009 Hanukkah design features a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles. The menorah was designed by Lisa Regan of the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Tulsa, OK, and photographed by Ira Wexler of Braddock Heights, MD.

In 1996 the first Chanukah stamp, depicting a more abstract and playful version of a Menorah, was issued. In 2004 the 2nd design was issued featuring a Dreidel floating on a background of letters forming the word Hanukkah*

The New Chanukah stamp is now available at your local Post Office or you can order the stamp directly from the USPS website.

More: past Chanukah stamp designs

*FYI – Chanukah and Hanukkah are just different spellings of the same holiday. There is no definite English translation of the Hebrew word for Chanukah and in fact at last count – so far – we’ve found 13 different spellings of Chanukah. But don’t worry they are all the same holiday.

Simchat Torah (begins at sundown – Jewish)
The final day of the holiday of Sukkot, Simchat Torah is a Jewish holiday, which translates literally to the Joy of the Torah. The holiday marks the end of the annual cycle of reading the Jewish Bible and the beginning of the new cycle. In Israel, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated simultaneously.

Shemini Atzeret (begins at sundown – Jewish)
This Jewish holiday commemorates the end of Sukkot. In ancient Israel, this holiday marked the start of the rainy season.

image credit: via flickr

Sukkot (Jewish)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Join us for our celebration of the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot: Sukkot on the Net

The Story of Sukkot
The Holiday and its Meaning

The Sukkah
What is a Sukkah and Why is it Important?

Etrog, Lulav and the Four Species
How Do You Pronounce it? And What do you do with it?

Sukkot Craft Projects
Make a newspaper Lulav
Bulid your own PVC Pipe Sukkah

*Sukkot began last night at sundown

photo credit: via flickr

Sukkot (Jewish – begins at sundown)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Click to continue reading and to visit our Sukkot celebration

photo credit: via flickr