Hanukkah or
the Jewish Festival of Lights, as it is sometimes called, begins on the
25th of the Hebrew month Kislev
and lasts for eight days. On the first
evening, just after dark, one candle is lit on the menorah, a special
eight-branched candelabrum. Each night, another candle is lit until on
the last night there are eight candles burning.
The origins of Hanukkah can be traced back more than 2100 years ago
when Judah Maccabee
and his followers liberated Jerusalem from
Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Devoted to the political and cultural ideas
of
ancient Greece, Antiochus had enacted a number of anti-Jewish decrees
and defiled the Holy Temple
in an effort to destroy the Jews’
religion. Eventually they rebelled, and amazingly,
after a three-year
struggle, were able to defeat the Greek Army...