How was your Thanksgiving and Hanukkah celebration this year? This year’s dual Thanksgivukkah celebration sure will be a story we can keep telling for generations!

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Speaking of stories that have been passed down from generation to generation, I always find Hanukkah stories so interesting. One of my favourite stories is the Miracle of the Oil and how it led to the celebration of this religious Jewish holiday.

It all started when the Syrian-Greek soldiers seized the Temple of Jerusalem and used the temple to worship the god Zeus. The Jews in the village of Modiin, near Jerusalem, were one of the first to show resistance. Mattathias, a High Priest, was one of the ones to rebel against the Greek soldiers who were trying to force the Jews to worship the Greek gods.

These rebels became known as the Maccabees. Soon, the Maccabees regained control and returned to the Temple of Jerusalem.

To purify the temple, the Maccabees wanted to burn the ritual oil in the Temple’s menorah for eight days. They were very sad when they found that there was only enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Nevertheless, they lit the menorah anyway. To their surprise, it burned miraculously for eight days.

And so, this Miracle of the Oil led to the Hanukkah tradition of lighting a Menorah candle every day for eight days.

I love this story because to me, it represents how even when things seem impossible, a light can still burn when fuelled by the people’s fighting spirit.

Let’s honor this and light a candle in people’s hearts by wishing them a Happy Hanukkah, and may this light miraculously burn brightly forever!