Hanukkah To know what happens during the festival

Hanukkah • To know what happens during the festival of Hanukkah • To understand why it is an important festival to Jews • To write a storyboard of Hanukkah

It’s the year 166 BC. Until now, the Syrian rulers of Israel had allowed the Jews to follow their own religion, but the new King, Antiochus forbade them to keep the laws of the Torah, such as observing the Sabbath. He put Greek idols in the Temple and put out the menorah, the special light that burned in the Temple symbolizing the presence of God for the Jews.

Anyone who refused to obey was killed but a man called Mattathias and his sons rebelled against the Syrians and fled to the hills to be joined by other Jews who wished to keep their faith. These people were called the Maccabees.

When Mattathias died, his son, Judah and his four brothers formed an army. After three years of fighting, although the Jews were greatly outnumbered, they won the battle and were successful in driving the Syrians out of Israel and reclaiming the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Temple had to be rededicated and according to legend, only one jar of sacramental oil was found, enough for one day.

Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, thus the eight days of Hanukkah, which means "dedication" and is also referred to as "The Festival of Lights", is a Jewish festival which begins on the Hebrew date of the 25 th of Kislev and lasts eight days, through the 2 nd of Tevet.

Today, A candle is lit for each of the eight days of Hannukah using the middle candle Children play ‘spin the dreidel’. The letters spell out the saying ‘A great miracle happened here’.

They will eat typical Jewish dishes like latkes to celebrate • Latkes are potato cakes with onions and eggs.

What does it mean to Jews? Rabbi Hugo Gryn, a leader of the Jewish community in Britain wrote this in his memories of the concentration camp during the Second World War as a boy of 14: ‘It was the cold winter of 1944 and although we had nothing like calendars, my father, who was a fellow prisoner there, took me and some of my friends to the corner of the barrack. He announced that it was the eve of Hanukkah, produced a curious shaped bowl, and began to light a wick immersed in his precious, now melted margarine ration. Before he could recite the blessing, I protested at the waste of food. He looked at me, then at the lamp, and finally said, ’ You and I have seen that it is possible to live up to three weeks without food. We once lived almost three days without water, but you cannot live properly for three minutes without hope.