Jewish families come together to pray, sing songs, and play games, and gifts are exchanged.
They light candles.
The lighting of the candles uses a special candle holder called a menorah.
The lighting of the candles is very important as it signifies the miracle of the oil in the lamp lasting so long.
The story behind this miracle is that almost all the oil was defiled by the Greeks before the invasion. In the rededication of the temple, there was only enough oil to light for one day. but Maccabee lit the lamp anyway. God caused the flame to stay lit for 8 days till more oil could be made.
This light was to stay lit according to tradition as God's eternal flame in the temple.
The food they would eat would be oily and fried to remind them of the oil miracle that God did.
The main game they played during this festival was dreidel.
A dreidel is a spinning top that can land on any of the four sides.
You would bet on which letter it would land on and the people would play for pots of chocolate.
Mostly children played this game but adults too.
Jesus was at this festival as it says in John 10:22-23
22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area, in the portico of Solomon.
This is the only record of Jesus celebrating this festival.
So we know by the verses that he went to the temple to pray or go to service or something else, we do not know for sure as it is not recorded in the Bible.
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