Today (14/12/2025) is the first day of Hanukkah, also known as Chanukah and the “festival of lights”. This eight-day holiday usually occurs between late-November and December. Hanukkah commemorates a Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid Empire in Judea in the second century BCE. This rebellion culminated in a band of Jewish warriors — known as the Maccabees — reclaiming the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Yet when they went to light the Temple’s menorah — a candelabrum of seven candles, which were supposed to burn every night — they found that there was only enough oil to last for one day.
Happy Hanukkah from British Online Archives!