SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Members of the Jewish community were in Syracuse's Clinton Square Tuesday night to light the menorah on the first night of Hanukkah.

Syracuse Mayor Stepahnie Miner was also on hand for the holiday tradition, which has taken place in the city of the last 36 years.

For the next week, a candle is lit each night, to symbolize the eight days that it took a small amount of oil to light the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during the siege.

Some say the true meaning of Hanukkah shouldn't be forgotten.

"The message of Hanukkah is the message of right over might. and the message of light over darkness. The victory of a small group of Jews over 2 1/2 thousand years ago, against the greatest army in the whole world the Syrian-Greeks, yet they managed to overpower them, drive them out of Jerusalem,” said Chabad Lubavitch of Central New York Rabbi Yaakov Rapoport.

This year, Hanukkah ends at sundown next Wednesday.