Hanukkah

Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, celebrates the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BCE. It is celebrated for eight days, starting on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which is in late November or December. There are no days of Yom Tov during Hanukkah.

In the second century BCE, Judea was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Hellenists). King Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed the Jewish religion and ordered the Jews to accept Greek culture and beliefs. Jerusalem’s Second Temple was desecrated by erecting an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs. The ancient Israelites rebelled, led by Judas Maccabeus, and against all odds, a group of faithful but poorly armed soldiers defeated the mighty Syrian-Greek army, drove them from the land, reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem and re-dedicated it to the service of God.