Hanukkah starts at sundown this Sunday and continues through Dec 22.

• Here are a few fun ways to celebrate the Festival of Lights around Tampa Bay:

🕎 Celebrate the first night at the free-to-attend "Chanukah in the City" event, where a giant menorah will be lit at Tampa City Hall.

• Expect hot latkes, authentic sufganiyot (doughnuts), and kosher Chinese food, along with activities like human bowling and obstacle courses.
• Sunday, 5-8pm.

🏒 Light the candle with the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena for its "Jewish Heritage Night," which features a pregame menorah lighting with professional players.

• Tickets start at $45 and include a kosher meal complete with hot latkes and a Tampa Bay Lightning Chanukah pin. Monday, 7pm.

⛸️ Head down to AdventHealth Center Ice for the annual "Chanukah on Ice" event, where guests can watch the lighting of a sculpted ice menorah and skate to Jewish music.

• Admission is $10 for skaters and free for everyone else. Saturday, Dec. 20.

🎉 What says Festival of Lights more than a neon menorah? Find it at Downtown Dunedin's "Hanukkah Festival" with a live DJ, a kosher food truck, a fire truck gelt drop and more. It's free to attend with a reservation.

• Tuesday, 5:30pm.

🏝️ Join the fun at Treasure Island's free-to-attend "Chanukah at the Beach" with live music, giveaways and a sunset menorah lighting.

• Sunday, Dec. 21, 5:30pm.

👀 Pick up a Chanukah Snow Globe during "Light the Night: Chanukah Street Fair" at Wesley Chapel's KRATE, where you'll also find a bungee trampoline, a Cirque Bishop show and, yes, a giant menorah and hot latkes.

• Sunday, Dec. 21, 5-7pm.

Share this story

👋 Yacob here. There are only a few days to go, and it's beginning to feel a lot like Hanukkah.

• We rounded up a few Hanukkah must-haves that can be bought as you make your regular runs to the grocery store or mall.

🪑 You've heard of the Elf on the Shelf ... well, Walmart's got a Mensch on a Bench.

🥔 Target's plush latke is here to make sure you have a spud-tacular Hanukkah.

💡 Light up your eight nights with festive flair — check out Five Below's Hanukkah Flashing LED Necklace.

🌟 Put the Han in Hanukkah with a Star Wars sweatshirt from Hot Topic.

🏠 This wooden porch sign from Home Depot is sure to gelt everyone's attention.

🦙 Visiting family? Alpaca this: The Hanukkah Llama from Tombolo Books.

🏈 USF quarterback Byrum Brown will sit out next week's bowl game amid ongoing speculation about whether he'll stay for his final season or head to the transfer portal. (Tampa Bay Times)

🌀 The FEMA Review Council abruptly canceled its meeting this week, during which it was expected to approve a report recommending several changes, including cutting the agency's workforce by half. (Fox News 13)

⚾️ Lanness Robinson, athletics director of Hillsborough County Public Schools, has been appointed the next executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. (Times)

Depending on who you ask, the Jewish festival of lights can have different English spellings.

What's happening: "Hanukkah" (the spelling we've been using at Axios) comes from a Hebrew word, and there are a few ways people write it in English.

When you write "Hanukkah" (or "Chanukah" or "Hanuka" or "Channuka," etc.) you have four choices to make, Rabbi Sarah Krinsky of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., told Axios.

Choice 1: Start with a Ch or H.

• To transliterate (or spell with the characters of another alphabet) the guttural first sound that comes from the Hebrew letter Het, Krinsky tends to go with the "H" — sometimes with a dot underneath it.
• Her personal preference is to save the English "Ch" for transliterating Hebrew words that use the Hebrew letter Chaf, which denotes a throat-clearing sound.

Choice 2: Use one n or two.

• Krinksy uses one n in English because in Hebrew there's only one letter — a nun — that makes the n sound in Hanukkah.
• "I have no idea why people do two n's," Krinsky says.

Choice 3: Use one k or two.

• Krinsky's preference for two k's "is a little bit wonky," because only one letter makes the k sound in Hebrew.
• She uses two English k's to account for the fact that the Hebrew letter kaf has a dot in the middle, called a dagesh, that "signifies that the letter is meant to be doubled [and] it just means there's a little oomph to the letter," she says.

Choice 4: End with an h or not.

• The Hebrew letter hei at the end of the word is silent, so Krinsky opts for the final English h to account for that.

Spread the word

Click here to test your knowledge of this week's headlines.

📬 Hit reply with a screenshot of your perfect score, and you could get a shout-out (AKA bragging rights!) in a future newsletter.