In the III century BC. e. the country of Israel was captured by the Greek-Macedonians. They forced the Jews to renounce their faith in one God and sought to convert them to paganism. The Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes captured the Jerusalem temple, desecrated it and erected his idols in it. A small detachment led by Judas Maccabee (Yehuda Maccabi) refused to worship the pagan gods and went to the mountains. After a while, they climbed the Temple Mount, dropped the pagan statues, and re-consecrated the Temple nine weeks after the end of Sukkot. The people were able to celebrate Sukkot and make sacrifices. "Consecration" in Hebrew means "Hanukkah". Hence the name of the holiday - Hanukkah.
In the temple, it was necessary to re-light the golden lamp - the menorah. But all the oil was defiled. There was only a small jug of butter left, but it could only last for one day. And then God performed a miracle: the oil burned for eight days!
This happened over 2 thousand years ago. And since then, Jews have been celebrating Hanukkah every year for exactly eight days.
The main miracle of Hanukkah - the miracle with a jug of oil - is a miracle of the world. Hanukkah is a celebration of light. The temple lamp - menorah is like a trunk with branches extending from it. The Menorah is a symbol of Judaism. She is depicted on the buildings of synagogues, on the doors of cabinets where Torah scrolls are kept. The Menorah, framed with olive branches, is depicted in the coat of arms of the State of Israel.
The traditional Chanukiah (Hanukkah lamp) is shaped like a menorah. But the Chanukiah has an additional branch - for two more candlesticks. Thus, the menorah has seven candles and the Hanukkiah has nine. The ninth candle is called "shamash" - a servant. All other candles are lit from it. On the first day of Chanukah, shamash is lit and from it - one candle, the next day - two candles. Etc…
The lit Chanukiah is transferred to the windowsill so that the light can be seen from the street. Houses shine brightly amid the winter darkness. If you listen closely, you can hear the words of the Hanukkah song:
Each of us is a small flame
And together we are a great light!
Promotional video:
Children are especially happy about this holiday. They are given toys or money to buy sweets. Very often children lose money at a spinning top, like a little unlucky hero from the story of the famous Jewish writer Sholem Aleichem.
This spinning top is not quite ordinary. It has four faces (sevivon) on each of them written by a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. Children play, guessing the letter on which the top will fall. Little players attach their meaning to letters: nun - won nothing and lost nothing; ne - you can get half of your bet from the cashier; hey - hey! You won - take two items from those available at the box office; Hillel - doom, your rate burned out.
Experts in Jewish history claim that during the persecution of the Jews and their language, children learned the Hebrew alphabet from a top.
From the book: "100 Great Holidays". Elena Olegovna Chekulaeva