A Great Miracle
From Special Times by Betty Jo Middleton

A long time ago, more than 2,000 years ago, the Jews had been defeated by a people called the Syrians.

When Antiochus IV became king of Syria, he was angry at the Jewish people for refusing to worship the Greek gods that he worshiped.

The Jews believed they should worship their own god, in their own way. (Ask the children,"What do you think? " Allow time for responses.)

Most of us don't want anyone to tell us what to think, or what to say, or what we should consider important. We believe that we have the right to worship in our own way, and that others should have the same right.

But Antiochus didn't believe that, and he decided to make the Jews worship his gods. He forbade them to read their holy books, pray to their god, and celebrate their holidays.

Antiochus even had Greek statues put in the Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest of all places to the Jews! He ordered the Jews to give up their Sabbath.

The Jews did not like this at all.

In the village of Modin, a leader rose up and his name was Mattathias. He and his five sons--Judah Maccabee, Jonathan, Johanah, Eleazar,and Simon--joined a band of patriots in the hills,and became guerilla fighters. On dark nights, they laid low the armies of Antiochus, one after another. When Mattathias died, Judah become the leader of the outlaw army, and it was under his leadership that they entered Jerusalem. When they reached the Holy City, their joy turned to bitterness when they saw the dirt and the desolation in the temple area. They started to work on restoring and scrubbing the Temple, and on the 25th of Kislev, they relit the Great Menorah with the small bit of holy oil they had found.Every year thereafter, the Jews celebrate this day as the Festival of Cleansing of the Temple.

From here, the story goes into a number of legends. The most loved story is one in which there is only enough oil for one day, but by a miracle, it burned for eight days, until more oil could be found and sanctified.

So for eight days, they celebrated the dedication of the Temple and their right to worship freely. And ever since that time, Jews everywhere have celebrated that great event that happened long ago. On the eight days of Hanukkah--which actually means "dedication"--Jewish people light candles, sing songs, play games, eat foods fried in oil, and give one another gifts!Even when Jews have lived in places where again it was against the law for them to worship freely,they have celebrated in this way.

(At this point, bring out the menorah and place the candles in it, one at a time, beginning at the right. Then, lighting the candles from the left, tell the children that one candle is lit the first evening of Hanukkah, two the second evening, and so on up to eight candles for each day of Hanukkah.)

Hanukkah is a celebration that we Unitarian Universalists can all appreciate, because we believe that all people should be free to worship in their own way.