Did Ancient Jews Change Hanukkah to One-Up the Competition?
ORIGINS
New research into the origins of Hanukkah shows that this joyful holiday developed and evolved alongside other gentile light-based festivals like Saturnalia.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
It’s the end of Hanukkah, the ‘festival of lights,’ or ‘Jewish Christmas,’ as some insensitively like to say. This holiday commemorates an event during the Maccabean revolt in the second century B.C.
