Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days in November, December, or early January. It commemorates the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple after a revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The holiday is celebrated by lighting candles on a Hanukkah menorah, playing games, eating traditional foods, and giving gifts.
Hanukkah or Chanukah, also known as the “Festival of Lights” or “Festival of Rededication”, is a Jewish holiday celebrated from the 25th day of the Jewish month Kislev to the 2nd or 3rd day of Tevet. It lasts eight days during the Gregorian months of November, December or, less often, early January. The holiday commemorates the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple as described in the Bible in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
In 175 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes became the ruler of Syria, which ruled over the Jewish territory of Israel or Judea. Antiochus gradually began to persecute the Jews during his reign, whereas under the previous rulers they had been free to follow their ways. The Temple in Jerusalem was looted, Jews were killed in large numbers, and an altar to Zeus was built in the Temple in 167 BCE. A Jewish priest named Mattathias and his five sons, including Judas Maccabaeus, led a revolt against Antiochus. They succeeded in the year 165 BCE when they were able to rededicate the Temple to the Jewish God.
When Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers wanted to rededicate the Temple, they found that there was only a day’s supply of oil, while the Temple menorah, a candlestick used in Jewish religious ceremonies, was supposed to burn all night, every night. Miraculously, a single day’s supply of oil burned for eight days, enough time to prepare more. Hanukkah commemorates this miracle by lighting candles for eight consecutive nights. A Hanukkah menorah is used for this purpose, with nine branches instead of the usual seven. Eight of the candles are lit one by one each night of the holiday, and the ninth candle, known as the shamash, is lit each night and used to light the other candles.
In addition to the lighting of candles, the holiday is celebrated with traditional prayers and songs. Other traditions include playing the dreidel, a game of chance that uses a spinning top; eat potato pancakes or donuts fried in oil as a reminder of the miraculous oil of the Temple; and give away gelt, real money or chocolate. In recent decades, Jews have begun to give each other additional gifts so that their children don’t feel left out during the Christian winter holiday of Christmas, which has become quite commercial. Some Jews choose to celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday and Hanukkah as a religious holiday.
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