Nadene Goldfoot
I'm finding that many Christians think, because of the dates Christmas and Chanukah are so close together, that Chanukah is just the Jews' way of celebrating Christmas.
I'm afraid not. Their dates of celebration in December is just a coincidence. One has nothing to do with the other.
Chanukah is a minor Jewish holiday in the context of all our Jewish holidays. Because gift-giving is involved, it's become more of a celebrated holiday, perhaps because it's in competition with Christmas.
Chanukah is celebrating a historic war where Judah, once one of the 12 states of Israel, had battles with the Greek-Syrians of Hellenism. They tried to take over the country and even got away with putting the idol of Zeus in the Jewish Temple ! Everyone was afraid to speak out. They were trying to force Jews to eat parts of pigs, you know, pork. That's forbidden for Jews, highly offensive in those days . They wanted to put an end to circumcision. That did it!
A very macho-man who had 5 sons, was furious. Mattathias was a patriot, a priest and a landowner of Modiin. He had 5 sons; Judah the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John, and Eleazar. Mattathias killed the royal official who was sent to make the Jews worship Zeus. This was the focus of the revolt of his sons against Antiochus Epiphanes. This was very serious; it meant the end of Judaism if not stopped. The Syrians had become Hellenized (fall for Greek beliefs) way before it was a threat to the Jews. That's why the Jews had to fight Syrian-Greeks.
Mattathias was the leader of the revolt and was staying in the Judean hills and waged a guerilla war on the Syrians. (In fact, he introduced fighting in that manner.) He was killed and his son, Judah the Maccabee, took over. He was later called the Hammerer because he hammered away at the Syrians. We remember Judah and his brothers being victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes and their rededication of the Temple that the Greeks had taken over.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes was the Hellenistic king of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 175 BCE until his death in 164 BCE, born around 215 BCE, known for his aggressive Hellenization policies that led to the Maccabean Revolt against his rule in Judea.
This means that the event happened about 2,200 years ago, and at least 175 years before the birth of Jesus.
In the temple hung the eternal light lamp of oil which was always kept full. With the Syrians taking over, it burned down to no oil left by the time Mattathias decided to risk his and his son's lives by rebelling. With them succeeding, they threw out Zeus and sent runners to the next town for oil. The lamp kept on burning for 8 nights anyway until the runners returned; a miracle. We remember this by eating foods fried in oil, like sufganiot (donuts) and potato latkas (hash browned potatoes-bought frozen are yummy in a pinch).
Young men were being kept from studying the Torah, so they would go into the woods and study. If the Syrian soldiers saw them and were questioning them, they denied they were studying, only gambling with a dreidal. That's where the dreidal comes into our holiday.
If this hadn't taken place, neither would Judaism have continued, so because of this event, Jesus was born and Christianity was able to develop.
Resource:
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-revolt-against-syrians-by-jews.html
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