HANUKKAH hä’ nə kə (חֲנֻכָּ֤ה, dedication, consecration). Feast of dedication. A Jewish feast of eight days beginning on the twenty-fifth of Chislev in winter (John 10:22). It commemorates the triumph of Judas the Maccabee over Seleucid forces in 164 b.c. and his cleansing and dedication of the defiled temple and altar (1 Macc 4:53). Purification from the general contamination of Hellenism also was involved. Hanukkah also is known as the Feast of Lights, based on the legend that a small cruse of undefiled oil supplied light for eight days.