History 

=History: =

The history of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, begins in 200 BC when the Jewish people of Jerusalem were under Egyptian rule. For years, the Jews were allowed to practice their own religion, until Antiochus IV Epiphanes made it illegal to worship anything other than the Greek Gods. In 168 BC, he seized the holy Jewish temple and dedicated it to Zeus and made pig sacrifices in it. This sparked revolt for a Jewish high priest, Mattathias and his sons, the Maccabees. The Maccabees, especially Judah, fought the Syrians out of Jerusalem. In 165 BC Judah and his army recaptured the Holy Temple.  Once they regained control of the temple, the high priest planned to light the ceremonial menorah. The ongoing flame would dedicate the temple to temple to God. However, the Syrians had burned most of the oil and they only had enough oil for one night. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight nights, enough time for the people to produce more oil to keep the flame burning. Hanukkah is Hebrew for dedication, which is exactly what the Maccabees did when they captured the temple and made it holy again.  Today, the menorah has nine candles. The center candle is used to light the other candles, and the remaining eight candles represent each night that the oil kept burning for the Maccabees. Another tradition we still see today is the use of the dreidel. The dreidel is a spinning top with Hebrew written on each side. During the days when Judaism was outlawed, people would used the dreidel to study the Torah. However, if a soldier arrived, the dreidel would make it seem as if the people were just gambling

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