For eight days, from Sunday November 28 to Monday December 6, Jews around the world will celebrate the feast of Chanukah. It is also known under the name of “festival of lights” because one lights during this time a candlestick with nine branches, the hanouk. Hanukkah marks the victory in 165 BC of the Maccabees over the Seleucid dynasty. King Antiochus IV Epiphanes had the second Temple in Jerusalem closed to Jewish worship and desecrated it by installing an altar dedicated to Zeus. More broadly, the revolt of the Maccabees is also a rejection of the Hellenization of Judea, an objective pursued by the Seleucid king. Thanks to the victory of the Maccabees, Jewish worship can be restored at the Second Temple in Jerusalem, which Hanukkah commemorates. For Jews, this holiday therefore celebrates their spiritual resistance to oppression.
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