History Of Hannukah

Games and blessings are also part of this important holiday, which marks the military and religious triumphs of the ancient Jewish peoples. 

The Ancient Roots And History Of Hanukkah

Hanukkah, sometimes identified as the holiday Chanukah, is also known as the Feast of the Maccabees, the Feast of Consecration, and the Festival of Lights.  It is a holiday celebrated by those that partake of religious practices within the Judaic faith.  This holiday is believed to have its earliest beginnings circa 165 BCE when Judas Maccabeus first celebrated and dedicated a brand new altar offered in the Temple in Jerusalem.  This holiday is commonly celebrated before the time period before Christmas, right around Winter Solstice.  The length of the holiday stems from the wondrous cruse of oil that allegedly burned for an eight day period.  This belief later lead to the lighting of candles on Hanukkah; a single candle is lit for each day of the eight days of the celebration; menorahs, or candle stands  with eight branches, are used to hold each of the candles that are lit. 

According to ancient legends, almost 2200 years ago, Antiochus IV, a Greek-Syrian ruler, forced the Greek culture onto his people; the Jews in Israel, then known as Judea were not allowed to participate in many of their most revered religiously-oriented practices and they were also not allowed to study the ancient Torah.  At that time it is said that the Jews banned together in rebellion; they were led by heroes like Mattathias the Hasmonean followed by Judah Maccabee in rebel armies.  Three years of fighting ensued until in 165 BCE the armies were victorious; they managed to regain control of the sacred temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.  The term Hanukkah literally means “dedication,” and the temple on Mount Moriah was actually rededicated following the victory of the Macabees.  According to ancient stories, there was very little oil left to light the candles during the rededication ceremony; nevertheless the inadequate amount of oil found and used managed to burn for a full eight days; this led to the practice of lighting the eight candles on Hannukah.  For more information visit Infoplease.com at http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0822661.html#ixzz1Li9aVDAQ.

More On The Ancient History Of Hannukah

A menorah is lit during the eight day celebration of Hannukah; this candle stand has a total of nine branches in all; eight of which are all the same height and one that rises above the rest in the middle of the stand.  The first candle lit is the one that rests in the middle of the stand; this candle is called the shamash or servant candle.  The lit candle is then used to light each of the other eight candles one by one as the holiday progresses.  Candles are lit in the evening and every time a candle is lit it is done so with a blessing.  The lighting of the menorah comes to represent the burning light that is found in the temple and each of the days during this Jewish festival.  It also acts as a way of celebrating and remembering the victory of the Maccabee rebel army long ago.

A common gift on Hanukkah is a driedel or top.  While this may seem like nothing more than a toy, driedels were at one time used to trick others into believing that one was not studying the Torah: an act that was banned at the time before the Macacabees regained control of the Jewish temple.  These dreidels were sometimes identified as sivivons, and were spun in order to make it look like students of the Torah were doing nothing more than playing with a toy.  For those that resided outside the confines of Israel, the sivivon would have different letters in Hebrew on each side; each of the letters were nun, gimel, hay, and shin.  The latter letters literally mean Nes gadol haya sham, which referred to Israel and translated as “A great miracle has happened here.”  Those sivivons belonging to the peoples in Israel would have the letter shin replaced with the letter pay, meaning “here a great miracle happened.”  For more details visit http://www.bhg.com/holidays/hanukkah/traditions/hanukkah-history-traditions/.

The History Of Hannukah Traditions

On the dreidel, each of the letters were also representative of how the driedel should be used; the game was played with gelts or chocolate candies in the shape of foiled coins.  Every player had an equal number of coins to begin with; the dreidel was then spun.  Whatever landed face up would instruct the players on what to do.  The word Nun represented the Yiddish word Nisht which meant that the players did nothing.  If the letter Gimel landed upright it represented the Yiddish word for gants that means that the player won the entire pot of coins.  If the letter Hay landed upright, Yiddish for halb, the player got half of the coin pot.  If the letter Shin landed upright, representing the Yiddish word shtel, the player had to put coins into the pot.  The game concluded with one player had all of the coins.

When it came to feasting, those foods consumed on the holiday were mostly cooked in oils; this was to represent the oil that was at one time used to keep the lights burning in the Jewish Temple.  Foods include things like donuts cooked in oil or sufganiya, potato pancakes, latkes, and the consumption of cheese is common too in order to remember the heroine Judith who is believed to have protected the village she resided in from the attacks of the Syrians by providing General Holofernes with cheese and wine until he became intoxicated.  According to the story, Judith then took the General’s sword and decapitated him with it, returning to her village with his head inside a basket.  When the Syrians had discovered this action, it is believed they become fearful and fled the village.  For more details visit http://www.history.com/topics/hanukkah.