Here is the story of Chanukah (Hanukkah, Hanukah) for your edification:
Following the death of Alexander the Great (323 bce), his empire was divided between his generals, and eventually fell between the Ptolemy's of Egypt and Selucids of Babylon. Right between these two new empires lay Judea, thus it was conquered and reconquered several times for about 200 years. After it was conquered by the Selucids around 175 bce, they erected a statue of Zeus in the temple,condemned all Jewish practices including circumcision, holiday celebrations then defiled and looted the temple. In 167 bce the Jewish rebellion began, led by Mattathias "The Hammer" Maccabee and his 5 sons and by 165 bce they had kicked out all the Selucids.
This represents a unique period of time in the history of Judaism, because they were able to institute a theocratic government without any outside intervention or government. It lasted until 65 bce, when they asked a group of upstart Italians to protect them against invasion. Dang Romans came to stay.
As they cleaned out and rededicated the temple a lamp was to be burned all night for 8 nights. However, they could only find enough olive oil for one day, so they started it and found that it miraculously stayed lit for all 8 nights. Thus it is called the Festival of Lights. Chanukah comes from the Hebrew word for rededication.
Tonight we had a great first night of Hanukah. Ben had to sell back his textbooks so we drove up early to Salt Lake, played on campus for awhile then headed down to see the lights (the
festival of lights). A miracle happened when we actually found parking at the new library (a lot with only about 100 spots, half a block from the square and free). Then we went to Siegfrieds, a German delicatessen where Ben bought some extra jelly doughnuts (which may or may not be a traditional Chanukah food) then we sang primary songs all the way home to keep Anna from crying and lit our menorah for the first night of Chanukah.
Maybe later I will post about how Chanukah is celebrated.
