Robert L. Millet Blog Posts Publications Director of BYU
Religious Studies Center POSTED BY: holzapfel Hanukkah, the
Jewish Feast of Dedication, begins this Friday night at sundown.
The Hebrew word Hanukkah actually means “dedication.” The eight-
day festival in 2009 runs from Saturday, December 12, to
Saturday, December 19. It is a holiday period of considerable
significance, both religiously and historically, to Jews the
world over. But it should also be of some importance to
Christians, including Latter-day Saints, for without the events
celebrated in Hanukkah there would have been no Christmas.
Here’s the story: The ancient Jewish people in the land of
Israel faced a grave threat when the Greco-Syrian despot
Antiochus IV became king of the Seleucid empire in 175 BC. Syria
controlled Judea at the time, but the Jews had been treated with
tolerance by previous Syrian rulers. Antiochus IV, however, saw
himself as a Greek deity in human form (he even adopted the name
Epiphanes), and he set a goal to convert all