http://www.slate.com/id/2179045/

We are about to have the annual culture war about the display of cribs, mangers, conifers, and other symbols on public land. Most of this argument is phony and tawdry and secondhand and has nothing whatever to do with "faith" as its protagonists understand it. The burning of a Yule log or the display of a Scandinavian tree is nothing more than paganism and the observance of a winter solstice; it makes no more acknowledgment of the Christian religion than I do. The fierce partisanship of the holly bush and mistletoe believers convicts them of nothing more than ignorance and simple-mindedness. They would have been just as pious under the reign of the Druids or the Vikings, and just as much attached to their bucolic icons. Everybody knows, furthermore, that there was no moving star in the east, that Quirinius was not the governor of Syria in the time of King Herod, that no worldwide tax census was conducted in that period of the rule of Augustus, and that no "stable" is mentioned even in any of the mutually contradictory books of the New Testament. So, to put a star on top of a pine tree or to arrange various farm animals around a crib is to be as accurate and inventive as that Japanese department store that, as urban legend has it, did its best to emulate the Christmas spirit by displaying a red-and-white bearded Santa snugly nailed to a crucifix.

http://www.jewlicious.com/?p=2971

It all began when Antiochus IV ordered Jews—under penalty of death—to abandon their religion. He appointed Hellenists as High Priest in Jerusalem, plundered the Temple treasury to pay his debts, and built a fortified Greek polis in Jerusalem. Faced with a choice of apostasy or rebellion, the Jews chose to rebel. The revolt achieved rapid success, led by the charismatic and brilliant Maccabee clan. At the end of the year 164 BCE the first Chanukah was celebrated and the Temple in Jerusalem purified.

“What is Chanukah?” asks the Talmud. “…Eight days…during which eulogies are not made and fasting is not permitted.” The Greeks had defiled all of the Temple oil. Only one jar was left, sufficient to burn for one day. But a miracle occurred. The oil burned for eight days! Jewish sages declared these eight days for rejoicing and lighting of Chanukah lights at the entrance to each Jewish home to publicize the miracle.

To remember the oil of the original miracle, oil is used until today for lighting menorahs and cooking special holiday foods. Although the military victory over Greece was itself miraculous and celebrated, Jewish autonomy was short-lived. The Romans expelled or killed most of the Jewish nation by the year 70 AD, leaving only a small population. However Chanukah, celebrating freedom of religious belief and practice, remains a vibrant holiday more than 20 centuries after the fall of Greece. Chanukah is truly joyous because it symbolizes the entire struggle for spiritual freedom, the light which pierced the darkness of tyranny and persecution.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-radosh/bah-hitchens_b_75270.html

It began not as Hitchens claims, with the Maccabees, but earlier, as a winter solstace celebration, Nayrot, that was probably little different from the celebrations of the surrounding cultures of the era. Later, this merged with the celebration of the Maccabees' victory and became Hanukkah. Six hundreds years after that, as Jewish society had become more theistic and introspective and less militaristic, the supposed supernatural intervention of Yahweh became the most important thing about the holiday-- as seen in the newly evolved story of the miracle of the lamps. In the 19th century, Zionists adapted Hanukkah to their nationalistic idea of Judaism. In 20th century America, Hanukkah became, for all intents and purposes, the Jewish Christmas -- or more precisely, the secular Jewish alternative to a secular Christmas. In some ways it came full circle -- a winter solstace celebration once more -- but the millennia of history now attached to it made it all the more rich and more meaningful.