A great miracle — well, maybe a little one — happened here

So it wasn’t exactly the Miracle of Lights, but it did involve a little Northwest ingenuity. A brisk wind was blowing Sunday night as a small, well-bundled crowd gathered in the plaza at Uptown Gig Harbor to observe the first night of Hanukkah.

Rabbi Bruce Kadden of Temple Beth El stepped forward to light the first candle on the Menorah, but in the wind, it wouldn’t stay lit.

Two candles are traditionally lighted on the first evening of Hanukkah — the first, called the shamash, or servant, is used to light the second. On this night, neither would take a flame.

Finally, two congregants stepped forward with a clever solution. John Barnes and Jordan Harris, of Tacoma and Lakewood, respectively, punched holes in the bottom of two cups from the nearby Cutter’s Point coffee shop, and slipped them over the slender candles.

With the cups as shields, the candles took hold and burned brightly, casting a warm glow in the winter cold.

As the crowd of about 50 people applauded, Cantor Geoffrey Fine led a round of Hanukkah songs, including “I Have a Little Dreidel,” and the soaring Ma’oz Tzur, or “Rock of Ages.”

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish celebration that commemorates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E., after a period of oppression by Greek-Syrian rulers. According to legend, a small amount of oil in the temple lamp burned miraculously for eight days.

The observance of Hanukkah varies according to the lunar calendar. This year it will end the evening of Monday, Dec. 30.

This story was originally published December 25, 2019 at 12:00 AM.