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The Festivals of Chanukah and Christmas

Jesus attended the Festival, as we may read in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verses 22 and 23: "Then came the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the Temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade" (NIV)

The Feast of the Dedication' - Dedication' is the English translation of the Hebrew word Hanukkah'.

So Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. What kind of ritual took place in the Temple during Hanukkah in Jesus' time?  In Jesus' time there was an extra illumination of the Temple during the celebration of Hanukkah, the annual commemoration of the Dedication of the Altar' and of the Sanctuary', in 165 B.C. (some scholars give 164 B.C.). (I Maccabees 4:36-59; Alfred Edersheim. The Temple. Its Ministry and Services at the Time of Christ,' p. 334)

Beside the ancient Mosaic 7-branched Menorah, there were "great candelabras burning in the Women's Court". (Alfred Edersheim. "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah", Vol. II, Book IV, chap. VI)  And in addition to that, the special Hanukkah lamp-stand was lit. It had eight branches and a leader-lamp called the Shammash' or Servant. The custom was then, as it still is, to light the Servant lamp first, and with it kindle the first lamp on the first night. Then, one additional lamp was lit each night, until on the eighth night all lamps were burning.

"Hannukah and Christmas festivals have one real point of contact. Had Antiochus succeeded in obliterating Jewry a century and a half before the birth of Jesus, there would have been no Christmas. The feast of the Nativity rests upon the victory of Hanukkah."

In a very real way, the faithful Jewish remnant existing at the time of Jesus in the Holy Land, served as the cradle of the Christ child' - the Jewish Messiah and universal Saviour.

Jesus celebrated Hannukah. He was born into a Jewish family, raised in a Jewish synagogue, first demonstrated his knowledge of Scriptures speaking to elders and rabbis at the Temple in Jerusalem, and had descent through Joseph from David, King of Israel.