Celebrations in Berlin on first day of Hanukkah

Hundreds of people celebrated the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Sunday evening in the German capital, Berlin.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Jewish leaders lit the ten-meter-high Hanukkah candelabra, the biggest in Europe, at Brandenburg Gate. Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, the Executive Director of Chaabad Lubawitsch in Berlin, also gave a speech in which he emphasized the importance of light winning over darkness.

The Hanukkah consists of an eight branched light structure called the menorah with the shamash light in the middle. The festival, which lasts for eight days and nights, aims is to bring as much light and therefore goodness into the world.