Jews have been celebrating their annual Hanukkah festival since yesterday. Hanukkah means ‘initiation’ and is a festival of lights that lasts eight days. Within Judaism, light has an important symbolic meaning. It symbolizes life, but also knowledge.
Hanukkah has its origins in the year 164 BC and is described in 1 and 2 Maccabees in the Talmud. The story focuses on Judea, which falls under the power of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of modern-day Syria. That king desecrates the temple of Jerusalem by placing so-called idols in it.
The Jewish people then revolt and eventually defeat the king. The temple is restored to its former glory. According to tradition, a special jar with oil plays an important role in it. The story goes that at the rededication there is enough oil to keep the light burning for only one day. Miraculously, the lamp burns for eight days. Every year at Hanukkah, that miracle is commemorated by lighting a special candlestick, an eight-armed menorah.
The Hanukkah celebration has many traditions, for both religious and non-religious Jews. For example, a game is played called dreidel. That’s a spinning top with four sides. The Hebrew letters are on each side midday, gigel, hey and sheen. Those letters form together Nes Gadol Haja Sham. Loosely translated, this means that a great miracle has happened. It is a reference to the oil that burned for eight days. Another tradition is to place the candlestick in front of the window, so that everyone can see ‘the miracle’.