Hanukkah
Buy and sell Hanukkah in Costa Rica.
Most of Costa Rica’s hanukkiot are lit in the homes around La Sabana, Pavas, Rohrmoser and Escazú, where the bulk of the country’s Jewish families live, and a growing number in newer households along the Pacific coast. Brass and silver candle menorahs, oil lamps with glass cups, dreidels, blue-and-white tableware and folding travel sets turn up new and pre-owned. A sound hanukkiah outlives its first owner, so the used ones are often a grandparent’s piece or a set left behind by a family moving back to the United States or Israel. Before anything else, look at whether the lights stand in one straight, even row.
Candle hanukkiah, oil hanukkiah and the electric one in the window:
the candle version is the most common, and everything depends on its cups. Hanukkah candles are thinner than Shabbat candles, and a cup sized for one will not hold the other upright. An oil hanukkiah burns olive oil in small glass cups with floating wicks; the flame is softer and the upkeep greater, because glasses chip and wick holders go missing. Electric menorahs suit a shop counter, an office or a window onto the street, but most families do not say the blessing over one, so they go alongside a lit hanukkiah rather than replacing it.
Eight lights in a row, and the menorahs made for the shelf:
for lighting, the eight branches stand in a straight line at the same height, with the shamash, the helper light, set higher or off to one side so it is never counted with the rest. Plenty of beautiful pieces break that rule on purpose: lights on a curve, at staggered heights, or the seven-branched Temple menorah, which is not a hanukkiah at all. They make good gifts and good décor, but anyone buying their only hanukkiah should look at it side-on before paying. Brass and silver plate are the everyday materials, sterling sits at the top, and ceramic and glass ones break more easily than they look.
A folding tin hanukkiah for December at the beach:
Hanukkah follows the Hebrew calendar and lands somewhere between late November and late December, often just as the school year closes and families leave for Guanacaste or the Caribbean. That is when a flat tin travel hanukkiah earns its keep, packed with a box of candles, a few dreidels and a net of chocolate gelt. Plan where it will stand: the dry-season winds that sweep Guanacaste from December put candles out on an open terrace long before they have burned for as long as the lighting calls for, so a sheltered window or a glass-fronted case is the better spot. Mixed households who set the hanukkiah beside a portal will find the nativity figures and the lights under Christmas.
A used hanukkiah, from the hallmark to the old wax:
wax left from last year is not a fault. It lifts off brass with hot water and a soft cloth, and few hanukkiot reach a second owner clean. What counts is underneath. On silver plate, rub the edges and the cup rims, where years of polishing wear through to the yellow or pink metal below; sterling carries a hallmark, usually under the base. Rock it on a table, because a hanukkiah that wobbles, or a branch bent out of line, is a hazard once every flame is lit. Screw-in cups work loose and soldered ones crack at the joint, so try each one. On an oil set, count the glasses and the wick holders. Dreidels tell you where they came from: one made in Israel carries the letter pe where others carry shin, and both are genuine.
A grandparent’s silver menorah or a beach-house travel set:
many pre-owned pieces come out of a house being cleared, or from American and Israeli families on the coast packing up, the hanukkiah often in the same carton as the Thanksgiving roasting pan. Photograph the hanukkiah from the front and from the side so a buyer can see the lights stand level, then the base, the hallmark if there is one, and each cup up close. Say whether it takes candles or oil, and whether the cups take standard Hanukkah candles. List it a few weeks before the first night; once the last candle has burned down, buyers wait for next year. Whoever drives over from Rohrmoser or Escazú to see it will usually bring a couple of candles to try in the cups, so scrape out last year’s wax before they arrive.