Explaining Hanukkah to Kids: The Story of the Maccabees

Netivyah International

Hanukkah is the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights. It usually falls in late November or December. It remembers a time in the second century BCE when the Jewish people fought to keep their faith alive and rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem. For families who follow Yeshua (Jesus), it is a story of trusting God in dark times and refusing to blend in with the world.

Explaining your family's first Hanukkah to a 5-year-old, or even an older child, does not have to be complicated. Children easily grasp the difference between light and dark. They understand the courage it takes to stand up for what is right. A simple explanation of Hanukkah for kids comes down to everyday people who refused to forget God's instructions when a powerful king told them they had to.

Antiochus and the Push to Assimilate

To understand the history, we have to look back to the year 167 BCE. A Greek king named Antiochus ruled over the land of Israel. The ruling culture of that time was Hellenism. Hellenism involved worshipping many gods, building gymnasiums, and adopting Greek ways of thinking. Before Antiochus, the Greek kings mostly allowed the Jewish people to live in peace and follow the faith of their ancestors.

Antiochus Epiphanes changed the rules. He wanted everyone in his kingdom to be exactly the same. He issued harsh decrees against the Jewish people. He ordered them to stop worshipping God in the Temple, and commanded them to worship Greek idols instead.

He made it illegal to keep the Sabbath and the biblical holidays. He forbade Jewish parents from circumcising their baby boys. He even ordered them to stop studying the Torah.

To make matters worse, King Antiochus offered a pig on the altar to the idol Zeus. This desecrated the holy Temple in Jerusalem. The First Book of Maccabees records this terrible time. The king sent letters to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah instructing them to follow foreign laws, and to prevent burnt offerings and sacrifices in the sanctuary (1 Maccabees 1:46-47).

Many people were terrified. Some Jewish people had already started acting like the Greeks to fit in. This process of losing your own values to match the surrounding culture is called assimilation. But others refused to turn their backs on the God of Israel.

The Story of the Maccabees for Children

Teaching kids about Hanukkah is an opportunity to tell them about brave people who stood firm. The Books of Maccabees contain accounts of unshakable faith. There was an elderly man named Eleazar who refused to eat pork. He gave his life rather than break God's law, setting an example of courage for the younger generation.

There is also the famous story of Chana (Hannah) and her seven sons. The king's soldiers captured them and demanded that they eat pork to prove they had abandoned Judaism. One by one, the sons refused.

They told the king that they would rather die than break the laws of their ancestors. According to the king's orders, all seven sons were killed, one after the other. Finally, their mother was killed as well. They held fast to their faith, knowing that God's promises were true.

Because of this terrible persecution, a family of Jewish priests known as the Maccabees decided it was time to fight back. Led by Judah Maccabee, whose name means "The Hammer", they organized a rebellion. They were heavily outnumbered by the powerful, well-trained Greek army. They hid in the mountains and fought a guerrilla war. Against all odds, God gave them the victory. In 164 BCE, they drove the Greeks out of Jerusalem.

The Miracle of the Oil and a Delayed Sukkot

When the Maccabees returned to the Temple, they found it in ruins. They cleaned the holy place, removed the pagan idols, and built a new altar. This act of cleaning and restarting the services is called dedication. The Hebrew word for dedication is Hanukkah.

They wanted to light the great menorah, the golden lampstand inside the Temple, but they had a problem. The Greeks had ruined almost all the pure olive oil. By tradition, the priests only found one small jar of pure olive oil with the high priest's seal still intact. There was only enough oil for one day. They lit the menorah anyway. A miracle happened. The oil lasted for eight full days until new oil could be prepared.

This story of the oil is not actually found in the Books of Maccabees. It first appears hundreds of years later in the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 21b). If you want to learn more about rabbinic writings, you can read our teaching on Yeshua in the Talmud.

There is another reason Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days. The Book of Maccabees tells us that while the Jewish people were hiding in the mountains and caves, they could not celebrate the biblical autumn festivals. They missed keeping the eight days of Sukkot. When they finally took back the Temple, they celebrated Hanukkah for eight days as a delayed Sukkot. You can learn more about the meaning of that autumn festival in our teaching on Sukkot: What Fragile Booths Reveal About True Joy.

Rabbi Yeshua at the Feast of Dedication

Many Christians are surprised to learn that Hanukkah is mentioned in the New Testament. The Gospel of John tells us that Yeshua traveled to Jerusalem for this very festival.

John 10:22 says it was winter in Jerusalem, and Yeshua was walking in Solomon's colonnade during the Feast of Dedication. He was there in the Temple area, walking exactly where the Maccabees had fought to restore the worship of God.

Joseph Shulam often points out that understanding the Holy Days in the New Testament helps us understand Yeshua better. Yeshua lived in a fully Jewish world. He knew the stories of the Maccabees. He knew the courage it took to stand up to a pagan culture. He called his disciples to have that same courage.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Rabbi Yeshua told his followers that they are the light of the world. He said that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. They put it on a lampstand so it gives light to all in the house. He commanded us to let our light shine before men, so they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

Lighting the Hanukkiah and Frying the Latkes

You do not need to become Jewish or leave your church to draw meaning from Hanukkah. If you want to mark this festival in your home, keep it simple.

The most common Jewish practice is lighting the Hanukkiah. This is a special menorah with nine branches. Eight branches represent the eight days of the miracle. The ninth branch is the shamash, or the helper candle, which is used to light the others. We light one candle on the first night, two on the second, and so on, until the whole hanukkiah is bright on the eighth night.

Families place the hanukkiah in a window to publicize the miracle. After lighting the candles, it is a Jewish tradition to sing a hymn called Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages). This song thanks God for delivering His people from their enemies. In the daily Amida prayer and the Grace After Meals, Jewish people also recite a special prayer called Al HaNisim, thanking God for the miracles He performed in those days.

Because of the miracle of the oil, families eat foods fried in oil. The most famous are potato pancakes called latkes and jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot.

Another popular family game involves a spinning top called a dreidel. The dreidel has four Hebrew letters on it: Nun, Gimel, Hey, and Shin. These letters stand for the phrase "Nes Gadol Haya Sham", which means "A great miracle happened there". Children spin the dreidel to win chocolate coins. Legend says that when the Greeks forbade Torah study, Jewish children would hide their scrolls and pull out spinning tops if Greek soldiers walked by, pretending they were just playing games.

Three Questions for the Table and a Simple Game

If you ask what you can learn from the story of Hanukkah, start by talking about what it means today. Here are three simple questions to discuss around the table while the candles burn down.

First, ask your children what it means to shine God's light to the world. Talk about specific examples of good deeds your family can do this week to glorify your Father in heaven.

Second, talk about the Temple. Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple after it was desecrated by idols. Ask your family if there are any areas of your lives or hearts that you need to clean out and rededicate to God.

Third, talk about fitting in. Antiochus wanted the Jewish people to assimilate and adopt Greek religion. Ask your children if they ever feel pressure to fit in with their friends at school. Discuss ways you can stand against that pressure and hold fast to God's instructions.

You can also play a simple group trivia game to help your children remember the story. Write a few questions on slips of paper. You can use questions like: What was the name of the wicked king? How many days does Hanukkah last? What did the Maccabees find in the Temple? Why do we eat fried foods?

Pass the slips of paper around a circle while playing music. When the music stops, the person holding the paper reads the question out loud and the person next to them answers it. It is a simple way to review the history while spending time together.

This winter, as the days grow shorter and darker, remember the courage of the Maccabees. Remember the faithfulness of Chana and her sons. Light a candle, read from the Gospel of John, and ask God for the strength to be a bright light in a dark world.

Questions people ask

How do you explain the story of Hanukkah to a child?

You can explain Hanukkah as a time when a wicked king told the Jewish people they could no longer worship God. Brave people called the Maccabees fought back, cleaned the Temple, and witnessed a miracle where one day's worth of oil burned for eight days.

What is the main lesson or moral of the Hanukkah story?

The main lesson of Hanukkah is the courage to stand up for God's instructions in a dark world. It teaches us to refuse assimilation and to trust God even when we are heavily outnumbered.

Who were Chana (Hannah) and her seven sons?

Chana and her seven sons were Jewish heroes during the time of King Antiochus. When the king commanded them to eat pork and abandon God's law, they all refused and chose to die rather than break their faith.

How can I explain Hanukkah to my non-Jewish child's classroom?

Keep the explanation simple and focused on religious freedom. Share that Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights, remembering a time when the Jewish people fought a king to keep their faith alive and rededicated their Temple in Jerusalem.