Friends and family will come together to celebrate, share gifts and eat traditional foods as the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah begins on Dec. 14, 2025.
Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the center of ancient Judean worship, in 164 B.C.E. It had been defiled by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes and was recaptured by Judean forces. Judean culture had been transformed by Greek influence for centuries, but Antiochus attempted to quash Judean religious distinctiveness altogether. This led to a rebellion by the Hasmonean family, known also as the Maccabees. They established a dynasty that lasted until the conquest by Rome in 63 B.C.E.
