Post submitted by Erin, one of our Student Experience Ambassadors
Hannukah, or Chanukah in Hebrew, is known as the festival of light. It is generally celebrated between the months of November and December for eight days, however the dates of Hanukkah change every year. The word ‘Hanukkah’ translates to ‘dedication’ and marks one of the biggest miracles to be known in Jewish history.
These eight days are significant, as they remind Jews of a time more than 2,000 years ago in which Jews won a three year battle against the Greeks, who had previously banned all Jewish rituals and stopped them from practising their religion freely.
After this battle, their Jewish temple, which had previously been destroyed by the Greeks in attempts to stop Jewish worship, was rebuilt. To celebrate this, an oil lamp was lit. The most significant factor of this story was that this oil lamp only had enough oil to burn for a day, yet it continued to burn for eight days despite this.
This story is used as a symbol of hope and joy in the religion, and is why light is now used as a crucial part of the celebration in modern day.
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