Hanukkah  Happy Hanukkah
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Origin / History Of Hanukkah: According to the Hebrew calendar, Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that falls on the 25th of the Kislev month. The celebrations carry for eight whole days and nights in continuity. Chanukah is also another name given to Hanukkah. The reason for this festival is to celebrate the fall of the Syrians and the victory of the minority community which is the Jews. They overpowered the Syrians in 165 B.C. The reason of the fight being that the Jews were forced by the Syrians to worship the Greek gods which was why the Jews got angry and they revolted against the mighty Syrian army and ultimately won. History Of Hanukkah: The history of Hanukkah can be looked back to thousands of years when the Jews were dedicated to their holy temple and beliefs; they ousted the Greeks and reclaimed their temple emerging victorious over the Syrians in the year 165 B.C. The Greek god of Syria, Antiochus, forced the Jews to worship the Greek god and did not allow the Jews to practice their rituals. The Syrians seized their holy temple in 168 B.C and dedicated it to Zeus. But the level of tolerance could not be stretched too much for the Jews and they revolted and fought the Syrians to restore the dignity of their holy temple. Even their holy temple was seized in 168 BC and was dedicated to Zeus. Not much time later, the angry Jews decided to fight back and restore the dignity of their holy temple. The fighting took place in a village called Modiin, close to Jerusalem.
To keep Sabbath observance, circumcision, and the study of Torah were banned; if anyone violated these rules, they were tortured and put to death. A statue of Zeus decorated the halls in the Temple in Jerusalem, and swine were sacrificed before it. Some Jews willingly followed the Syrians and abandoned their faith in God and of their ancestors. Many of those who wouldn't were savagely punished. One example is the story of Hannah and her seven sons, who were captured by Antiochus's troops and commanded to bow to an idol. One by one, each boy refused; each was tortured to death before his mother's eyes. The fight to reclaim what ever the Jews had lost began in the year 167 B.C. The seed of hatred was sown for the Greeks when they asked the Jews to bow before an idol and eat pig’s flesh and that was forbidden by the Jewish religion. They were also told to offer a sacrifice to an idol. For a while, no one complied. Then an apostate Jew known as Mattathias, an elderly priest who lived in Modiin, killed the Jew and attacked the Syrian soldiers and tore the altar down. He got enraged by this bullying and killed the officer who instigated this, and then he went into hiding with his family. Slowly but surely, the rest of the Jews joined him to fight against the atrocities of the Greeks and were all willing to fight against the Greeks.
. With the death of Mattathias, Judah his third son, took his place and took command of the army to fight the Syrians. He and his group were very small and were easily outnumbered by the Syrian soldiers but they won victory after the other which was a miracle. In 164 BC, they recaptured the Temple, which they cleansed and purified and rededicated to God. On the 25th day of Kislev, the menorah, the candelabra in the Temple symbolizing the divine presence, was rekindled. When Judas went inside the temple after reclaiming it, he found many things missing and broken into pieces. Things were lying around destroyed. Then the temple was cleaned up and repaired by Judah and his soldiers. A huge dedication ceremony was held there and while it was on, The Maccabees wanted to light the golden menorah in the temple. In order to do that, they looked and found a small flask which contained oil that was just enough to light the menorah for just a day. But it was a miracle when the oil lasted out for eight whole days. This is the reason why a menorah is lit for the festival of Hanukkah for the whole eight days, and this became a tradition which the Jewish people started following. To commemorate this miracle, an eight day festival was declared. The fighting continued for many years and it was in the year 142 BC that the Jews finally regained control of their land. It is important to note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the victory of the fight with the Jews over the Syrians.
Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday which is not present in the Bible and the only one that grew out of a battlefield. We can still say that its focus is on the spiritual aspect of the festival, not physical. Unlike Passover and Purim, the two other Jewish festivals of salvation, there is no special festive meal associated with Hanukkah. The main focus is in the flame of the menorah, the light of which is not used for any sort of physical purpose. There is no physical side to the celebrations concerning Hanukkah, it may sound unusual but in fact, it is most appropriate but if you keep in mind the war between the Jews and the Syrians then you will definitely place it higher than the physical aspect. When you think about Hanukkah, think about holiness and spirituality. The Jews fought the Greeks to preserve their right to pray to God following their own beliefs and customs without having to forcefully idolize the Greek Gods and demean their virtue in the eyes of God. They fought to keep their faith in God intact.
The Jewish religion is strong standing and survived because of the fact that they triumphed the war. More than 2,000 years later, the Hellenists and the gods that they worshipped known as their pagan gods, are just relics of dust and do not feature in history meanwhile on the other side, the Jewish religion continues to thrive.  Introduction To Hanukkah
Origin Of Hanukkah |
