On the night of December 23, millions of Jews around the world light the first candles in the week-long Jewish festival of lights known as Hanukkah.

The festival commemorates the victory of the Jewish Maccabees against the Syrian Greeks more than a thousand years ago. It also symbolises the light of religious, national and cultural freedom won by the Maccabee family for the Jewish people.

Britain's Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, goes as far as to say that if the Jews had been defeated at this time and their monotheistic religion obliterated, Christianity would never have been born.

"That decision to resist and fight back ended in victory. Without it, Israel might have remained a Greek province, its religion extinguished. There would have been no Judaism, indeed no Christianity," writes Rabbi Sacks, in his book Faith in the Future.

Uprising and victory

Hanukkah is the only Jewish festival that commemorates an event not mentioned in the Bible. The story behind the celebration is related in the Book of the Maccabees, a volume in the Apocrypha, a series of 14 books added as an appendix to the Old Testament.

The Maccabee revolt began in the village of Modi'in, now in modern-day Israel

Hanukkah celebrates the first major rebellion in ancient Jewish history - the victory of the Maccabee Jews over the Syrian Greeks in 161BC.

Israel was at that time under the control of the Seleucid dynasty, which inherited the country from Alexander the Great's Greek empire. King Antiochus IV wanted to force all the people in his empire to worship Greek gods. Jewish rituals such as the Sabbath and circumcision were outlawed.

The Jewish rebellion was sparked off in the village of Modi'in when a detachment from King Antiochus' army came to set up an altar and commanded the Jews to sacrifice a pig on it. Mattathias, an old priest, killed the Jew that was about to obey the order and then retreated into the mountains with his five sons. They began a guerrilla war against the Greeks and their Jewish allies.

Mattathias' son, Judah the Maccabee, took up the fight when his father died and led his forces to victory, liberated Jerusalem and reclaimed the Temple of Solomon from the Hellenists. Judah's soldiers rededicated the temple by lighting the temple oil-lamp, but they could find only one cruse of oil to keep it alight. By some miracle, the oil lasted eight whole days, long enough to obtain further supplies.

Judah decreed that this miracle and the rededication of the Temple should be celebrated by a national holiday. Ever since that time, Jews around the world celebrate Hanukkah by lighting the Menorah - a candelabra with up to eight branches.

The festivities

Hanukkah falls on the 25th Kislev, a date in the Jewish lunar calendar. This year, Hanukkah happens to coincide with Christmas but it can begin any time from the end of November to the last days of December.

Children play 'spin the dreidel'

The Menorah became not only the symbol of Hanukkah but also the emblem of Judaism itself.

Menorahs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but usually have eight branches and a ninth servant candle in the middle to light the others.

The festival is commemorated both at home and at the synagogue. On each of the eight nights of Hanukkah, a member of the family lights one candle until the whole Menorah is alight by end of the week. As the candle is lit, a blessing is recited and everyone sings special Hanukkah songs.

Ma'oz Tzur Yesh'uati sung by the Habonim Choir (Dur:1'23")

Ashkenazi Jews - those from Germany and Eastern Europe - sing a hymn called Ma'oz Tzur Yesh'uati (Mighty Rock of my Salvation). Sephardi Jews - of Spanish, Portuguese or North African descent - recite Psalm 30.

Like Christmas, Hanukkah is best loved by children. They play games with a special Hanukkah spinning top, called a dreidel .

This cube-shaped toy bears a Hebrew letter on each side. Whichever letter is visible when the top stops spinning wins or loses them the stake - usually a pile of sweets. Children also receive small gifts or gelt - Hanukkah money.

Potato Latkes: a favourite Hanukkah snack

Hanukkah is a time for feasting and some dishes have a special significance.

People eat fried food like Latkes (potato fritters), pancakes and doughnuts - "oily" dishes to remember the miracle of light. It is no coincidence that doughnuts are also sold for Christmas celebrations in Poland (where they are called ponchiki )and Germany (Berliners).

Message of resistance and tolerance

Hanukkah is celebrated in different ways all over the world but the message behind the story is the same - the victory of the few over the many, the courage of the Jews to assert themselves as a people and initiate a national and cultural renaissance.

Hanukkah, O Hanukkah sung in Yiddish by Joy Hyman - 1959 (Dur: 1' 24")

"We should understand that just as the Hellenist Greeks did not defeat the Jewish impulse neither should we the Jews feel anyone else's impulse forced upon us," says Rabbi Shlomo Felix speaking from the Office of the Chief Rabbi in London. "We will be radical in the defence of our religion against all odds."

Rabbi Felix adds that Hanukkah is not only a time for Jewish pride but also for tolerance of minorities. "Hanukkah was when we were on the receiving end of intolerance. So we should treat strangers well," he says.

And how does the victory of Judah the Macabbee over the Syrian Greeks bear any relation to the situation of modern Jews today? "Well, here we are," states Rabbi Felix. "It's worked, we have our own state, our own country and we have shown we can certainly stand up for what is rightfully ours."

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