A family lights a menorah together to celebrate Hanukkah. (Photo courtesy of Roy Morsch via Getty Images)
The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah – also known as Chanukah – is an event that is celebrated around the middle of the winter season each year. But why does it last for eight days?
The most common explanation is that the eight days commemorate a miracle in which a small amount of oil burned for eight days instead of one. However, that is not the original reason for Hanukkah's length, a scholar who studies Jewish history told Live Science.
But regardless of the explanation, Hanukkah always lasted eight days, even in the first year of its celebration in ancient times.
The word Hanukkah comes from the Hebrew verb “to dedicate.” The holiday was established in 163 BCE, when a Jewish revolt led by warriors known as the Maccabees successfully liberated Jerusalem from Seleucid rule. The Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, banned Jewish customs and set up an altar to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem, sacrificing pigs there.
Historical sources claim that Hanukkah was instituted to commemorate the ritual purification and rededication of the Temple, which allowed for the resumption of Jewish worship. However, the question of why Hanukkah lasts eight days remains complex.
The usual explanation is the “miracle of the oil jug.” (A jug is a container.)
According to this legend, the “eternal fire” in the temple, which was supposed to burn continuously, went out when the city was ruled by the Seleucids.
It is said that after the expulsion of the Seleucids from Jerusalem, the Maccabees sought oil to kindle the temple fire; but they succeeded in finding only one jug of religiously pure oil – enough to keep the fire going for one day.
Yet when the temple flame was lit from a single jar of oil, it miraculously continued to burn for eight days—just enough time to complete the ritual purification process and produce more oil, according to legend.
In some traditions, it is these eight days that Hanukkah is celebrated.
The story's connection to the eight days of Hanukkah is emphasized by the ritual of lighting candles on a nine-branched candlestick known as the Hanukkah menorah, or hanukkiah, which lights many Jewish homes during the holiday. Each main branch of the candlestick represents one day of Hanukkah, while the ninth candle—the auxiliary candle, or shamash in Hebrew—is used to light the others.
But David Kremer, a professor of Talmud and rabbinic studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, notes that the story of the miracle of the oil was not written down until several hundred years after Hanukkah was instituted. Instead, it appears to date to the period between 100 and 600 C.E., when the collection of Jewish teachings known as the Talmud was compiled, though much of it was based on earlier traditions.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
