New York's Empire State Building turns blue and white for Hanukkah

The lights of New York's famous Empire State Building will be turned blue and white tonight to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, thanks to the determination of a 9-year-old New Yorker and a tradition that began 14 years ago.

In 1996 Mallory Blair Greitzer, then 7, began to wonder why the Empire State Building, whose colours change regularly to celebrate major and minor holidays (red and green for Christmas, blue and red in honour of "Family Day, A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children"), did not turn blue and white to celebrate Hanukkah. According to The New York Times, Mallory approached the teachers at her Jewish school and asked about beginning a letter-writing campaign to have the Jewish festival of lights recognised by New York's most famous building. Her school turned her down.

Undaunted, Mallory wrote to the building's management herself, only to receive a form letter rejection. Her father wrote a similar letter, and received a similar response.

But Mallory was persistent. "I am one tough cookie,'' she told the Times.

She wrote directly to Leona Helmsley, whose Helmsley-Spear management company ran the building. The notorious "Queen of Mean" was convinced, and ordered the building to be lit up blue and white for two nights in December 1996.

The building's lights turned blue and white for the first night of Hanukkah in December 1997 - and Mallory herself flipped the switch.

As Hanukkah and Christmas coincide this year, between December 23 and 28 the building will be split, with the north and south sides red and green and the east and west sides blue and white.