A Gentile’s Guide to Chanukah!!

This column was first published in December, 2010.  We’ve always gotten positive feedback for it and enjoy re-publishing it each year.  Nothing is altered below except the opening sentence for obvious reasons.

The “Festival of Lights,” Chanukah, begins this year on Sunday, December 6th at sundown.  No doubt, many non-Jews are unfamiliar with the holiday, its origins and traditions.  In the spirit of the numerous books out these days that explain seemingly complicated things in a simple fashion, we offer this tongue in cheek, “A Gentile’s Guide to Chanukah.”

Q. Is Chanukah is just a holiday that Jewish people came up with so they could have a similar December holiday?
A.    NO.  The historical events that Chanukah commemorate actually took place 165 before Jesus was even born.  The evil Greek-Syrian King Antiochus conquered the land of Israel, put up a really yucky statue of himself in the Holy Temple…