Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 9, 1993 TAG: 9312090385
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sunset on Wednesday marked the beginning of the eight-day Festival of Lights - also known as Hanukkah - observed by Jews around the world.
Though the two come at about the same time of year and share a superficial resemblance in that both involve gift-giving and lights, Christmas and Hanukkah are unrelated holidays.
The festival of lights is a commemoration of events that happened 165 years before Jesus' birth and celebrates the preservation of religious freedom in the face of persecution.
The story is recorded in I Maccabees, one of several books written between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D. and now included in what is called the Apocrypha.
Unlike the Nativity story, the details of this one aren't universally known, so a summary is in order.
During the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes - who took control of Palestine after the death of Alexander the Great - some Jews took on Greek ways, even declining to circumcise newborn boys and "abandoning the holy covenant."
In 169 B.C., Antiochus swept into Jerusalem from Syria and stripped the Temple of its gold and silver fixtures. He desecrated the altar and burned the holy books. Within a couple of years, all the people of Judea - both Jews and Gentiles - were ordered to abandon their customs and religions and to give sacrifices to Antiochus' gods. Those who would not obey faced execution.
Among the Jews who resisted were a priest named Mattathias and his five sons. A representative of the king came to Mattathias and tried to persuade him to lead the people of his town to obey the command to worship the new gods. Mattathias refused, killing not only the emissary, but also a Jew who wanted to assimilate and had tried to offer a sacrifice at a pagan altar.
Mattathias and his sons then fled to the hills, where they organized a guerrilla army that smashed pagan altars and forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised males they found. A year later, Mattathias died - apparently of natural causes. He had named his son Judas Maccabeus as the new military leader of their resistance band.
Though outnumbered, the Maccabean-led force won battle after battle against soldiers loyal to Antiochus. The Maccabees successfully fended off a campaign intended to erase even the memory of the Jews from their traditional homelands.
Eventually, Maccabee forces retook the Temple and worked to restore and cleanse it. It was about 165 B.C. when they celebrated the rededication of the altar with eight days of sacrifices and thanksgiving.
They also decreed that the restoration of the temple should be remembered every year with an eight-day festival.
By the time of Jesus, Jerusalem was under the domination of another foreign power - Rome. The annual feast of the dedication apparently was well-established, however, though it is mentioned only once in the New Testament. In John 10, Jesus is accused of blasphemy in the temple during the festival. He escapes his accusers, who threatened to stone him for claiming to be the son of God.
In later years, a tradition not mentioned in any biblical accounts gained popularity and is now enshrined in the annual celebration of Hanukkah.
According the the story, at the time of the rededication of the temple there was only a small amount of oil available for the eternal light that had been relit. The oil miraculously lasted eight days, until a new supply could be obtained.
Today, a nine-branched menorah - a special type of candelabrum - is used during Hanukkah. A new candle is lit each night from a "leader" or "servant" candle in the center.
Specific prayers are offered each night. The first night, for instance, a prayer says, "Blessed are You, O Lord our god, Ruler of the world, who has kept us in life, sustained us, and brought us to this happy time."
As with many holidays, there are special foods for Hanukkah. Those include fried potato pancakes called latkes, braided bread called Challah, cookies in traditional shapes such as the star of David or a menorah. Many synagogues or temples have a family night during Hanukkah with a common dinner and candle-lighting ceremony.
Then there are the gifts. Many families give small presents to children, especially, on each of the first seven nights of Hanukkah. On the final night, a more significant gift may be presented.
There also is the tradition of the dreidel. The four-sided tops were associated with gambling and were disapproved by rabbis most of the year. Encouraged to give any winnings from their games to charity, children were allowed to play with the toys during Hanukkah.
Each side of the dreidel is marked with a Hebrew letter, standing for the phrase "nes hayah sham" - "a great miracle happened there."
Hanukkah is - theologically speaking - a minor religious holiday, and many Jewish religious leaders attribute its popularity to its proximity to Christmas. The festivities are seen by many families as an important cultural counterbalance - particularly for their children - to the attention the Christian holiday receives.
by CNB