Facts you may not have known about the religious symbols of the holiday season:

The menorah, which translates to candelabrum in Hebrew, is a nine-branched Jewish symbol that holds candles that are blessed and lit for each night of the holidays. Eight of the candles that it holds are for the eight nights of Hanukkah, and the ninth candle is used to light all of the other candles and is referred to as the shamash, or servant, candle.

Candy canes are a Christian symbol used to represent the real story behind Christmas.  The shape of the cane can be seen as both the letter “j” for Jesus, or the staff of a shepherd.  According to the Bible, Jesus is the people’s shepherd.  The color white portrays purity and the red stripes represent the slashes on Jesus’s back from when he was whipped right before being crucified.

Another important Hanukkah symbol is the dreidel.  The dreidel is a toy that has been adapted from a gambling game and means “spinning top” in German.  The four sides of the dreidel have the Hebrew letters nun (take nothing), gimmel (take everything), hey (take half), and shin (put one in).  These words control how the players add to or remove from the central pot, which is filled with small objects, such as chocolate money or coins.  The letters have also been interpreted as representing the first letter of each word in the phrase “neis gadol hayah sham”, which means “a great miracle happened there”, in Hebrew.  This refers to the re-dedication of the Temple along with the defeat of the Syrian army.

The principles of Kwanzaa, the African American cultural holiday celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, are expressed in Swahili as Nguzo Saba.  These are seven candles are held in a kinara.  The three red candles on the left represent struggle and the three on the right represent hope and are colored green.  The middle candle is colored black to represent the people who celebrate their African heritage.