Does Hanukkah have anything to do with Christians?

Answer 1

No. Hanukkah is not a strictly religious holiday, because it commemorates the Maccabean War of 165 BCE between the Jews and the Syrian-Greeks.

Christians should have no ethical issues celebrating it, but on the other hand, they also have no need to celebrate it.

Answer:While not addressing the question of non-Jews celebrating Hanukkah, it should be pointed out that Hanukkah is indeed a religious holiday, instituted by the Torah-Sages (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), with special blessings, added prayers and Torah-readings. And on Hanukkah, the chief celebration is not for the military victory. It's for the miracle of the oil (Talmud, Shabbat 21b); and we also thank God for His having helped us to oust the Syrian-Greeks (Seleucids) and their lackeys, the Hellenizing Jews.

The Seleucids (who held power during part of the Second Temple era), at the instigation of the Hellenizers, had forbidden various Torah-practices such as Sabbath-observance, and pressed the Jews to offer up idolatrous sacrifices. The Hasmoneans (a religious Jewish family) fought to retake the Holy Temple, which had been seized by the Seleucids, and to enable the people to once again observe the Torah. When they reached the Temple grounds, they found only one day's supply of unsullied olive oil, but the oil lamps miraculously burned for eight days (ibid.), allowing enough time for new oil to be prepared and brought.

The significance of the miracle is that it demonstrated that God's presence still dwelt in the Holy Temple.

The Torah Sages instituted the festival of Hanukkah at that time (Talmud, Shabbat 21b), to publicize the miracle (Rashi commentary, ibid). The eight-day rededication of the Temple is also mentioned in the book of Maccabees (I, 4:36; and II, 1:18); and Josephus mentions the eight-day festival in Antiquities ch.12.

The Al-Hanisim prayer which we recite during Hanukkah centers around the Hasmoneans' victory, while the candle-lighting commemorates the miracle of the oil.

Though the military victory is prominently mentioned in the prayers, it wouldn't have been celebrated if not for the miracle of the oil, just as we have no special occasion to mark Abraham's victory (Genesis ch.14), or those of Moses (Numbers ch.21), Joshua, Deborah (Judges ch.4), Gideon (Judges ch.6-7), Jephthah (Judges ch.11), or King David. And though the Hasmonean battles continued for two decades after the retaking of the Temple, the Sages instituted Hanukkah immediately after the miracle of the oil.

It should also be noted that the main goal for which the Maccabees fought was not political independence. They fought to enable the people to observe the Torah's commandments; as we say in the Al Hanisim prayer: "the Greeks sought to cause us to forget Your Torah and leave Your statutes."

Answer 2

No. Hanukkah is a minor holiday that commemorates the victory of the Jews against the Syrian-Greeks in the Maccabean War of 165 BCE.

Christians did not exist yet.

Answer 3

As Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday, Christians do not generally celebrate it.

Answer 4

In the middle ages, Christians sometimes took the books of the Maccabees very seriously. The Cathedral in Geneva, for example, had a Chapel of the Maccabees (it was later used as a storeroom, which is how it survived the iconoclasts during the Reformation). In general, anyone who wants to appropriate someone else's festivals can do so, but Christians usually ignore Hanukkah. It is a historic fact that, had the Maccabeean revolt failed, Judaism would probably have faded or taken a vastly different form that it does today, or even 2000 years ago, so perhaps Christians do have something to celebrate.