Hanukkah this year began at nightfall on Sunday November 28 and will end at nightfall on Monday December 6. So, if you are Jewish, like some of my kin, light this evening the fifth of the nine candles of the menorah.
I hope I have that right. The numbers are confusing. Hanukkah has nine nights, but lasts eight days from the first nightfall to the last. The Hanukkah menorah is a candelabrum of nine branches, but the temple menorah has seven. The central candle is used to ignite the others. If you set the menorah on a windowsill, its reflection will be a constellation on the sky outside.
Hanukkah commemorates the successful rebellion of the Jews, led by Judas Maccabaeus, against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV in 167 BC. Or, more exactly, it celebrates what followed: the cleansing of Jerusalem’s Second Temple from the idols of Greek gods, and the miraculous eight-day burning of the menorah candles despite lack of sacred oil to replenish them.
This was part of the ending of the Hellenistic or “Greekized” age, during which Macedonian power and Greek culture covered the Middle East. The Seleucid empire was the largest of the pieces into which the empire of Alexander III of Macedon, the “Great”, broke up after his death in 323 BC.
Seleucus I, one of Alexander’s generals, later absorbed most of Antigonus’s piece, so the Seleucid empire covered most of what had been the Persian empire that Alexander had destroyed, stretching from the Aegean Sea to the borders of India. The kings were named either Seleucus or Antiochus, and the capital was moved from Babylon to Antioch in northern Syria (now Antakya in a piece of Syria that was given to Turkey in 1939)..
There is a curious resemblance between the name of Seleucus and that of Seljuk, whose descendants, the Seljuk Turks, came centuries later from the opposite direction and ruled much the same area from about 1040 to 1245 AD.
There is still a calendar called the Seleucid or Grecian; at least, it is among the eras listed in section B4 of the Astronomical Almanac (some others are the Japanese, Chinese, Saka, the Diocletian or Coptic era, and the era of Nabonassar, who was a Babylonian king). The Seleucid era dates from 312 BC, when Seleucus founded his empire by taking command of Babylon, so the year 2333 SE or AG (Anno Graecorum, “year of the Greeks”) began on 2021 Sep. 14 in our current (Gregorian) calendar. This calendar had to be used by the Jews under Seleucid rule, and it continued for some centuries to be used by some Christian minorities in Syria and the Jewish community in Yemen.
My novel Berenice’s Hair, about the story of the constellation, is set in the Hellenistic age, and there’s a nice picture of a candle, explaining heat and colors, in To Know the Stars.
Self-contradiction of the week
“I don’t think it’s unusual for people, on rare occasions, to lose their place in a speech.” –Boris Johnson’s spokesperson, about the prime minister’s twenty-seconds pause while trying to find his place in his speech to a group of business leaders on November 23.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Fascinating period of history, the Hellenistic . Tragic as well.
Mr. Ottewell:
To clear up some things about the Jewish calendar as well as it’s holidays:
In the Hebrew calendar days start at sundown and end at the next days sundown. Therefore Hanukkah has only 8 days AND only 8 nights. The 9th night would technically be part of the next Hebrew calendar day (after sunset and therefore it is NOT part of the holiday. The holiday ends at sundown. For this years Hanukkah: night 1 and the holiday starts on Sunday November 28. The holiday ends just before sunset on the 6th of December. As soon as the sun sets on the 6th it is part of the next day on the Jewish calendar and therefor not part of Hanukkah. Thus, no 9th night.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
To say something is usual that only happens on rare occasions would be an oxymoron, but to say that something which only occurs on rare occasions is the usual frequency of its occurence does makes sense.
I like to say that you have to drive carefully when you drive dangerously. This also sounds like an oxymoron or self contradiction at first glance. But what I mean is you have to drive with much precision when you are driving dangerously fast.
I was a guest at a friend’s Hannukah celebrations. It was very interesting.
And in other calendar news: the new liturgical year commenced last Sunday with the beginning of the Advent season.
We Sir Boris is usually full of hot air so it would be very not unusual,as Tom Jones sang,for him to be lost for words for 21 seconds.Sadly I think that the Jewish community in the Yemen have all gone and not a single person is left.There use to be some Druze there too but the followers of this strange faith who regard Plato and Plotinus as prophets have also left.