The first night of Chanukah in 2024 is Wednesday, 25 December.
Chanukah continues for eight (8) days and concludes with the last (eighth) candle lighting on the night of Wednesday, the 1st of January, 2025.
Chanukah ends after sunset on the eighth day, Thursday, 2 January 2025.
Fun fact! - There are more than TEN different ways of spelling the English transliteration of the Hebrew word for Chanukah!
From candle-lighting to Maccabees - from latkes to dreidels, Hanukkah, or the Festival of Rededication, celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its defilement by the Seleucid Empire (Syrian Greeks) in 164 BCE. Although it is a late addition to the Jewish liturgical calendar, the eight-day festival of Hanukkah has become a beloved and joyous holiday. It is also known as the Festival of Lights and usually takes place in December, at the time of year when the days are shortest in the northern hemisphere.
Beginning in 167 BCE, the Jews of Judea rose up in revolt against the oppression of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire. The military leader of the first phase of the revolt was Judah the Maccabee, the eldest son of the priest Mattityahu (Mattathias). In the autumn of 164 BCE, Judah and his followers were able to capture the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been turned into a pagan shrine. They cleansed it and rededicated it to Israel’s God. This event was observed in an eight-day celebration, which was patterned on Sukkot, the autumn festival of booths. Much later rabbinic tradition ascribes the length of the festival to a miraculous small amount of oil that burned for eight days.
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