Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is often called a minor festival and, as such, does not require abstaining from work. Hanukkah’s popularity has increased in the United States in recent decades due to its proximity to the Christmas season. An eight day holiday at the end of the lunar month of Kislev (November/December), Hanukkah celebrates a “military miracle,” the victorious Jewish Maccabean rebellion in 165 BCE against the tyrannical Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV. Hanukkah also celebrates another miracle: after regaining the temple in Jerusalem when the Jewish leaders had only one jar of undefiled oil—enough for one day of ritual use—God enabled the single jar of oil to burn for eight straight days and nights.

Recalling this miracle, the most important observance of Hanukkah is the lighting of the candles on the chanukiah, the traditional eight-branched candelabra used only at Hanukkah, reassuring the Jewish people of God’s sustenance against all odds. The term “menorah” typically refers to a seven-branched lamp, while the chanukiah has eight branches and is only used during Hanukkah. Despite this distinction, most Jews still use the word “menorah” to refer to the candelabra used at Hanukkah. The Hanukkah menorah also symbolizes the light of religious, national and cultural freedom won by the Maccabees for their people. Their victory gave new vitality to a people suffering under Hellenistic rule and enabled Jewish culture to flourish again. Many Jews today understand one of the lessons of Hanukkah to be Jewish resistance to assimilation and empire. (https://pluralism.org/hanukkah)