The
Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called the "Feast of the Maccabees", is a Jewish festival observed for eight days from the 25th of
Kislev (usually in December, but occasionally late November, due to the
lunisolar calendar). It was instituted in the year 165 B.C. by
Judas Maccabeus, his brothers, and the elders of the congregation of Israel in commemoration of the reconsecration of the
Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and especially of the
altar of
burnt offerings, after they had been
desecrated during the
persecution under
Antiochus Epiphanes (168 BC). The significant happenings of the festival were the illumination of houses and
synagogues, a custom probably taken over from the
Feast of Tabernacles, and the recitation of . According to the
Second Book of Chronicles, the
dedication of Solomon's Temple took place in the week before the Feast of Tabernacles.
Julius Wellhausen suggests that the feast was originally connected with the
winter solstice, and only afterwards with the events narrated in
Maccabees. The Feast of Dedication is also mentioned in , where the writer mentions Jesus being at the Jerusalem Temple during "the Feast of Dedication" and further notes "and it was winter". The
Greek term used in John is "the renewals" (Greek τὰ ἐγκαίνια,
ta enkainia).
Josephus refers to the festival in Greek simply as "lights". == Dedication of churches ==