Hanukkah · History & traditions
The story of Hanukkah
Temple rededication, the tradition of the oil, and the distinct Jewish meaning of eight nights of light.
Rededication at the heart of the holiday
Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival recalling the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean revolt against Seleucid rule in the second century BCE. The name is associated with dedication. Its religious and historical setting is its own; the holiday is not a Jewish version of Christmas.
Reform Judaism's history of Hanukkah discusses the revolt, the Temple's rededication in 164 BCE and the accounts through which the story has been passed down. It is useful to distinguish the historical conflict from the later rabbinic account of a small supply of oil lasting eight days.
Remembering through light
In rabbinic tradition, a small supply of oil miraculously lasted eight days. This story gives the lights a powerful place in Jewish memory. The eight-night observance gives families repeated opportunities to remember and celebrate.
A Hanukkah lamp, often called a hanukkiyah or Hanukkah menorah, has places for eight festival lights and a separate helper light, the shamash. It differs from a seven-branched Temple menorah. Chabad's Hanukkah overview explains the nightly addition of lights and the special care around Shabbat.
A Hebrew date, a changing civil date
Hanukkah begins on 25 Kislev in the Hebrew calendar. In 2026, Hebcal places the festival from sundown on Friday, December 4 through nightfall on Saturday, December 12. Jewish dates begin in the evening; the first full daytime date is December 5. The final lighting evening is December 11, not December 12.
The first and eighth lighting evenings are Fridays this year. An invitation that simply says “after dark” could therefore mislead an observant guest. Our eight-night planning guide highlights the relevant evenings without substituting a single clock time for local practice.
A game with its own journey
Dreidel is one familiar activity, but it should not be treated as unchanged since antiquity. Reform Judaism traces the game to a German spinning-top game and explains the Hebrew letters' later interpretation. Israeli dreidels commonly use a different fourth letter, referring to a miracle happening “here” rather than “there.”
Food, songs and family practices vary. Ask the people gathering with you what they keep, rather than assuming every home has the same menu or exchanges gifts every night.