A Launceston Jewish community has shed light on its religious holiday Hanukkah on Sunday.
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The Launceston celebration is in its seventh year and the lighting of the electric 12-foot Menorah – an eight branch candlabra - was open to the public out the front of the St John Street Synagogue.
Organiser Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yochanan Gordon said lighting the Menorah symbolised the triumph of light over darkness.
Traditionally a branch of the Menorah was lit each day to represent one day of Hanukkah, Rabbi Gordan said.
Seven represented the order of nature and seven days of the week, while the eighth branch represented miracles which transcended nature, he said.
The event marked the sixth night of Hanukkah celebrations.
Bass Labor MP Ross Hart read messages from the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition at the event, while Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten lit the Menorah.
“This is a wonderful expression of the multiculturalism in Launceston,” Mr Hart said.
This year marks 50 years since Rabbi Menachem M. Sneerson initiated the Mitzvah Campaigns, which lay the groundwork for the public menorahs and worldwide Hanukkah campaign he set in motion in 1973.