Chanukah is an eight-day festival that, like most other Jewish holidays, has both historic and seasonal origins. It celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the Hellenistic Syrians in 165 B.C.E.

The central motif of Chanukah has always been light: miracle of the oil, the light of the altar, the light everlasting, and eight candles of the menorah. Chanukah is the only important Jewish festival not referred to in the Bible.