Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar. The name derives from the Hebrew verb ‘to dedicate’, which means ‘to rededicate’ or ‘dedicate’
About Hanukkah in brief
Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, called a menorah. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries. Although a relatively minor holiday in strictly religious terms, it has attained major cultural significance in North America and elsewhere, especially among secular Jews, due to its occurring around the same time as Christmas, and coming to be treated as a Jewish counterpart or alternative to Christmas. The name derives from the Hebrew verb ‘to dedicate’, which means ‘to rededicate’ or ‘dedicate’ The story is preserved in the books of the First and SecondMaccabees, which are not part of the canonized Tanakh used by modern Jews, though the Catholic and Orthodox Churches consider them part ofThe Old Testament. The eight-day rededications of the temple is described in 1 MaccABees 4: 36–4: 59, but the name of the festival and the miracle of the lights do not appear here. A story similar in character, and older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 MacCabees 1:1:36 to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on 25th Kislev, and which appears to be the reason for the selection of the same date for the redingication.
It specifies the length of the feast as 25 days, as well as the manner of fasting on which eulogizing is forbidden. It also specifies that the feast is a delayed observation of the eight- day Feast of Booths, which is also known as the Feast of the Megillat Ta’anukah, or the feast of the Booths. The feast is held on the last day of the month of December, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. In Hebrew, the word HanukKah is written or in Yiddish; a transliteration also romanized as Chanukah or in Hebrew, it is most commonly transliterated to English as Hanukkahs or Chanukahs. The former spelling is the most common and the preferred choice of Merriam–Webster, Collins English Dictionary, the Oxford Style Manual, and The New York Times and The Guardian. The sound represented by Ch (similar to the Scottish pronunciation of loch) is not native to the English language. Adapting the classical Hebrew pronunciation with the geminate and pharyngeal Ḥeth can lead to the spelling Hanuk kah, while adapting the modern Hebrew pronunciation with no gemination and uvular ḥeth leads to the spellings Hanukah.
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This page is based on the article Hanukkah published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 10, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
