Yom HaShoah: How Yellow Candles contextualise Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Yom HaShoah, the annual Jewish rememberence of the Holocaust.

An incredibly meaningful date for Jews around the world, it is an opportunity to reflect on the tragic murder of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis between 1933 and 1945.

The day lasts from the evening of April 27 to the evening of April 28, as it follows the Jewish tradition of days beginning and ending at sunset. The date also changes every year as Yom HaShoah follows the Hebrew calendar, a lunar calendar, and takes place on the Hebrew date of Nisan 27th.

Shoah is the name for the Holocaust in Hebrew. In English, Yom HaShoah translates to “The Day of the Calamity”.

Across the globe, Jews join together to pray and memorialise the victims. Synagogues hold special ceremonies for Yom HaShoah, and there are also publicly held silences.

The most notable silence is in Israel, where at 10am on the day, an air raid siren sounds to initiate a country-wide two minute silence. It is common to see motorways come to a standstill as people exit their cars to observe the silence.

Israeli drivers stop at the side of the road for the Yom Hashoa siren, to remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers in the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/1OdkkMEEr6

Tel Aviv completely stops during Yom Hashoah Siren pic.twitter.com/6YYSkLcGNI

The Yellow Candles

One of the most common methods of commemorating Yom HaShoah is to light a candle in remembrance of those lost.

In the UK, a tradition has grown of lighting a candle in remembrance of a Jewish victim that was not related to you.

Organised by Jewish non-profit charity Maccabi GB, the Yellow Candle Project gives every Jew who signs up the chance to remember a victim who may have otherwise gone forgotten.

Each candle