sententia

Everyone has heard of Christmas (or at least, most everyone has!) and are aware that its religious significance is the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth. Many people have also heard of Hanukkah, but only know that it usually falls “around Christmas time.”

There seems to be an implicit assumption that Hanukkah and Christmas are somehow related — like how Passover and Easter are related (unrelated side note: the Calendar dates for Passover and Easter haven’t been related for the past… oh… 1500-odd years. But that doesn’t stop the misconception about that one, either). But this couldn’t be further from the truth…

The Hanukkah Story

The Jewish festival of lights (aka. Hanukkah or Chanukah) occurs annually on the 25th day of Kislev, the 3rd month of the Jewish calendar, which normally falls in December (find out exactly when). It runs for eight days, and commemorates the re-dedication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt in 165 BCE.

“Wait,” you say, “back up a second. The Maccabean revolt?”

Yes, the Maccabean revolt.

Antiochus IV

Once upon a time… around 175 BCE, the Jewish people were living in the land of Israel which was ruled by the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Before Antiochus IV ascended the throne, the Jewish people were largely self-ruling; they paid taxes to Syria and followed Syrian law, and in turn, they were mostly left alone.

But Antiochus IV changed all that. He ordered the Jewish people to worship the Greek gods, introduced contests (with nudity!) into Jerusalem, forbade Jewish rituals and ordered massacres of Jewish people. In essence, Judaism was outlawed.

Mattathias and Judah Maccabee

Most people seem to agree that when Antiochus IV erected an altar to Zeus in the Temple (167 BCE), it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. A priest named Mattathias, together with his five sons, in particular decided it was time to stand up to Antiochus’ “reforms”. His son Judah (known as “the Hammer” — aka Judah Maccabee) led the revolt after Mattathias’ death to victory over the Seleucid leadership.

Rededicating the Temple

But the Temple had already been desecrated by Antiochus’ “reforms” and had to be rededicated after its liberation. So the temple was cleansed and a new altar was built, and a new menorah was prepared. According to interpretations of Jewish law, though, the Temple menorah was required to be lit day and night, and there was only enough oil for one day.

Tradition holds that despite this lack of oil, miraculously the menorah remained lit for eight days — long enough to prepare more oil for this special purpose. The traditional reasoning for the eight days of Hannukah is to commemorate these miraculous days.

Alternate Theories

As an interesting aside, the first book of Maccabees, a non-canonical book which relates the story of the Maccabean revolt does not contain the story of the miraculous oil. Thus, many scholars have suggested that the festival really began as a delayed celebration of Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), which lasts for seven days plus the eighth day (which follows immediately thereafter) known as Shemini Atzeret. But none of the early sources tell us the origin of the Festival of Lights.