Question

Why do people celebrate Hanukkah?

Answer 1

Hanukkah celebrates a military victory of the Jews over foreign rulers. The Seleucid kingdom from neighboring Syria took control of Jerusalem in about 198 bce. Some 30 years later the ruler Antiochus tried to force the Jews to give up their religious practices. When he also took over their Temple they rose up against him. The leader of the rebellion was named Judas Maccabeus. He soon defeated the Seleucids. The Jews then cleaned, rebuilt, and rededicated the Temple in 164 bce.

Answer 2

The eight-day Jewish celebration known as Hanukkah or Chanukah commemorates the rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend Jews had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt