United Airlines is adding eight new international destinations to its itinerary for next summer.
The airline, which said that this is its biggest international expansion ever with more than 760 weekly flights, will also be adding some new routes.
Beginning in May, travelers departing from Newark, New Jersey will be able to visit locations including Bilbao, Spain; Faro, Portugal and Palermo, Italy. In June, the airline will start offering flights from Newark to Madeira Island, Portugal and Nuuk, Greenland.
Other flights include Tokyo to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Washington, D.C. to Dakar starting in May and Tokyo to Kaohsiung, Taiwan beginning in July.
New routes to already existing destinations include Washington D.C. to Nice, France; Washington D.C. to Venice, Italy and Tokyo to Narita-Koror, Palau. The airline will also resume service to several destinations earlier in the season, including Newark to Athens, Greece in March and Newark to Dubrovnik, Croatia in May.
United said that all new flights are subject to government approval and will be available for sale on its website and app.
Last month United announced that it struck a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer satellite-based Starlink WiFi service on flights within the next several years.
The airline said that the service will be free to passengers and allow them to connect multiple devices. United said that it will begin testing the service early next year and begin offering it on some flights by later in 2025.
FILE - United Airlines jets sit at a gate at Terminal C of Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., July 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.” On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah — a multibranched candelabra.
In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC, after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.
With the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the temple, they lit the menorah — and it stayed lit for eight days. The ritual of lighting a nightly candle, as well as the emphasis on cooking foods in oil such as potato pancakes called latkes, memorialize this miraculously long-lasting oil.
The dates of the holiday are based on Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually coincides with November-December in the Gregorian calendar.
This year, Hanukkah will be celebrated from Dec. 25, 2024, through Jan. 2, 2025.
Jews across the religious observance spectrum — from Reform to Conservative to Orthodox — focus on the same theme of bringing light into the darkness and emphasizing that even a small, against-the-odds effort can have a transforming effect.
For this reason, even though the Talmud reflects a dispute over the order of lighting, most start with one candle and increase the lighting by one more candle each night while reciting or chanting special blessings.
The candles are added from right to left, but lit from left to right on the menorah, thus always starting with the newest light. The special menorah used for Hanukkah has eight branches, with a ninth place for the candle called shamash from which all others are lit.
The tradition calls for candles with a real flame, though some also use electric ones in public displays, such as in hospitals, for safety reasons.
A menorah is lit in each household and traditionally is placed where it can be seen from the outside, such as a doorway or windowsill, to symbolize the spreading of God’s light to all nations.
The lighting of menorahs in city streets and parks has become more prominent in recent years in countries around the world, including in front of public landmarks.
In addition to menorah lightings, giving to charity and social works are also part of the celebration for many, reflecting the belief that the Jewish people are called by God to help make the world better for all.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Rabbi Peter Tarlow lights a candle on a menorah during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
