Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-12-20
HISTORY OF AN ANCIENT JEW
iSH HOLIDAY.
EIGHT DAY CELEBRATION
interesting Account of Religious
Strife-Devotion Rewarded by the
Establishment Of a Day of Feast
ing-Corresponds With Our
Christmas Season-The Eight
Branched CandIestick.

4
dedications, one of the minor holidays
in the Jewish calendar began yes
| terday, December L.. 1t is an eight
day celebration and commentaries
the valiant deeds OF the heroic Mac
cabees, as related in the scriptural
books bearing their name.
The integrity Of the Jewish faith
had been threatened by the Syrian
king, Antiochus Epiphanes. He had
sent his minions to Jerusalem and
all the cities of Palestine, command
ing the Jews to renounce the wor-
ship of Jehovah and adopt instead the
worship of Jupiter and the other
gods of the Greek pantheon. Affairs
had been constructed everywhere
and there the Jews had been hidden
to resort and offer the sacrifices to
the Greek deities which they had
been accustomed to render to the
God of their fathers alone.
The sacred altar in the temple had
been defiled by unclean sacrifices,
the holy scrolls had been torn and
desecrated, the inner court of the
temple, the holy of HOLES, had been
polluted by the riotously licentious
rites attendant upon the worship of
Bacchus. Some weak, timid souls
among the Jews had yielded to the
kings mandate and joined in the for
hidden forms of worship. But certain
stalwart souls, notably the members
of the household of an aged man,
Mattathias, resident of suburb
of Jerusalem, Modin had resisted.
They We're forced to fee to the noun
tain Businesses and there gathering
a small band of the like resolute and
courageous spirits about them they
| had waged a series of successful bat
ties. more in the nature of guerrilla
contests than regular pitched battles,
against the Syrian soldiery. Time
and again the king sent the pick of
his generals and troops against the
little band of intrepid champions of
their faith, only to have them return
with humiliating tale of their de
feat. At last, convinced of the hope
lessness of his attempt to force the
Jews to renounce their religion, he
surrendered the struggle in despair
Thereupon, under the leadership of
Judas, who had succeeded his father
Mattathias, and who bore the further
surname of 'the Maccabee," from
DC no nj int IN
ton is given. that his battlecry,
Who is like unto thee among the
mighty" in the initial letters in
Hebrew of that legend form that
name or that his standard had en-
blazoned upon it the figure of a ham
mer, the Hebrew name for which is
Maccab. Under this leadership the
band of the faithful returned to Jeru-
salem and proceeded to cleanse the
temple of the desecrating vestiges OF
heather worship, restored the scrolls,
rebuilt the altar and called, upon the
Jews, on the 25th day of the ninth
month Kislev, in the year 165 B. c.,
to unite in solemn service of re-
dedication of the ancient shrine. The
temple shone with effu1gent lights
kindled throughout its magnificent
interior, and in commemoration of
that solemn festival and in grateful
devotion to the memory of the heroic
Maccabee and his followers, the Jews
Instituted the annual eightday fes
tival of lights.
Lights are kindled in the homes of
pious Jews throughout the festival,
beginning with one taper the first
night, and growing in number each
succeeding night, until eight on the
final night are ablaze on the Memo
rah," the eight branched candle
stick. The festival has been cele
brated throughout the history of
Judaism, as all Jewish fesUivaIs were,
by merry-makings, by an exchange of
gifts and especially by bounteous
provisions made for the needs of the
poor. In this respect II was the
forerunner Of the christian festival 81
Christmas, with whose occurrence
there is close coincidence annually
in time, the 25th Of Kislev falling