History
"Hanukkah"

			Hanukkah or Chanukah 
	(Hebrew for “dedication”), annual festival of the Jews 
celebrated on eight successive days. It begins on the 25th day of 
Kislev, the third month of the Jewish calendar, corresponding, 
approximately, to December in the Gregorian calendar. Also known as the 
Festival of Lights, Feast of Dedication, and Feast of the Maccabees,
Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by 
Judas Maccabee in 165 BC after the temple had been profaned by Antiochus 
IV Epiphanes, king of Syria and overlord of Palestine. In 168 BC, on a 
date corresponding approximately to December 25 in the Gregorian 
calendar, the temple was dedicated to the worship of Zeus Olympius by 
order of Antiochus. An altar to Zeus was set up on the high altar. When 
Judas Maccabee recaptured Jerusalem three years later, he had the temple 
purged and a new altar put up in place of the desecrated one. The temple 
was then rededicated to God with festivities that lasted eight days. 
According to talmudic tradition, only one cruse of pure olive oil, 
sealed by the high priest and necessary for the rededicatory ritual, 
could be found, but that small quantity burned miraculously for eight 
days. A principal feature of the present-day celebration, commemorating 
this miracle, is the lighting of candles, one the first night, two the 
second, and so on until a special eight-branched candelabrum is 
completely filled. The principal source for the story of Hanukkah is the 
Talmud.