Why can't christians celebrate hannukah?

Question

I don't know much about the hannukah story. Did it come before Jesus Christ was born? If so, why don't christians celebrate it also? Considering that they were jewish before christianity was started, it's in their heritage, too, right?

Answer 1

I see where you're coming from, but I think it's a cultural thing. We have to remember that the term Jew or Jewish is both representative of a religion and a race. So even though Christianity came from the Jewish religion, and Hanukkah is a part of that religion, it's more a part of racial identity and therefore part of the Jewish race. At least that's how I see it. I think it would be ok if a Jew became a Christian for that person and his/her family to celebrate both Hanukkah and the birth of our Savior. At some point - most notably it started with those whom Paul taught, there began to enter into early Christianity those who were not Jewish. It is then, in my opinion, that Christianity should and did break with Jewish holidays. I think after a generation or two, even Jews (by race) who become Christian (in religion) should break with the Jewish holidays.

Oh, and Hanukkah has to do with the Maccabees and a cruse of oil that did not fail, long after it "should" have - I think.

Answer 2

Hannukah is a holiday also known as the Festival of Lights. It was given as a holiday to the Jews, not the Gentiles. That being said there is nothing in the Bible which states that a Christian can't celebrate Hannukah, it's just that we choose to celebrate the birth of The Light of the World, Jesus Christ, instead.

Answer 3

Hannukah is a holiday celebrating something the Jews witnessed, not the Christians. Jews agree, even, that Hannukah is not a very big holiday on the scale of holidays. yom kippur is much more important. There is no reason why Christians CAN'T celebrate Hannukah, but it would be silly to, because there is no such event that a Christian witnessed that called for a celebration. (btw, Christianity DID come from Judaism, but the two have VERY different beliefs. Christians believe that the Messiah has already come to earth and will return, but the Jews believe that he has yet to return.)

Answer 4

Hannukah comes from what Catholics/Lutherans/Anglicans call the "Apocrypha." It is a rememberance of when Judas Macabee and his followers liberated Israel from their occupiers. They cleaned the temple, purified it according to ritual, and re-established a Jewish Kingdom. However, they only had enough oil to light the lamps for one day. Miraculously, as a sign of God's favour, the lamps burned for 8 days (hence the candles in the Menorah.)

Some Christians do recognize Hannukah. However, keep in mind that outside the U.S., Hannukah isn't a major festival. It's more along the lines of the Feast of St. Francis. It only became as prominent as it is due to the explosive popularity of Christmas in the Victorian Era. Jewish families needed something to counteract the allure of Christian celebration.

As Christians, we would recognize Jesus as a "perfect sacrifice for the whole world." Therefore making sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem is unnecessary, and the purification of the Temple is not so big a deal for us. Particularly since most of us are Gentile Christians, and covered more by the restrictions in Acts, rather than the Law as handed down in the Old Testament.

Answer 5

I guess the answer is they CAN celebrate it, but usually do not. Messianic Jews being the likely exception.
The Orthodox Jews do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, so they aren't celebrating His birth at all when they are having Hanukah. It's a whole other celebration all together.
Hanukah recalls the struggle for religious freedom and commemorates the victory of the Jews over the Hellenistic Syrians in the year 165 B.C.E.
In the year 167 B.C.E. the Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes began a campaign to force the Jews under his rule to formally adopt Greek practices. One Jewish family, five sons and their old father, took a stand.

One day Greek forces arrived at Modiin, the home of Mattityahu, an elder and religious leader of the prestigious Hasmonean family. There, the army established a Greek religious altar and ordered Mattityahu to offer a sacrifice to a pagan god. Mattityahu refused, but while he stood firm, another Jew offered to make the sacrifice. Enraged, Mattityahu killed him and attacked the Greek soldiers. His action sparked a Jewish rebellion, which he and his sons led. They became known as the Maccabees, which in Hebrew, means Men Who are as Strong as Hammers.

Led by Judah Maccabee, the most famous of Mattityahu’s five sons, the Maccabees, a force much smaller than the powerful Greek armies, finally triumphed in 165 B.C.E. On the 25th of Kislev, the Maccabees reclaimed the Jewish Temple, which was, at that point, almost unrecognizable as a place of Jewish worship.

The Talmud says that when the Jewish army wanted to rededicate the Temple, they were unable to find enough specially prepared oil to light the Menorah, a holy lamp, or candelabra, used in the Temple service.

Finally, in one Temple chamber, the Maccabees found a single bottle of oil, which normally would have lasted only one night. However, by a miracle, the one bottle of oil lasted eight nights, until new oil, fit for Temple use, could be produced.

This is the miracle Jews commemorate to this day. By lighting the eight Hanukah lights of the menorah, Jews everywhere recount the triumph of our ancestors against immorality, the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle that a one day supply of oil lasted eight days.

danicolgirl, I do believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I do believe that Jesus Christ is God. I think you've got just a bit of your info mixed up. Christians and Jews DO worship the same God, Only the Jews are still waiting for a messiah, while the Christians are believing that Jeshua/Jesus is the Messiah.

Answer 6

Christians can celebrate any Holy Day. Jesus came and fulfilled all the Sabbaths in Him. We are not under the law of sins and death, we are under Grace, made the righteous of Christ by the redeeming blood of the Lamb.

I haven't studied Hannukah yet, so not sure what it is about. But I can celebrate it if I want to. Unless the Lord tells me not to.

Answer 7

In John 10 you see Jesus in the Temple during the "feast of dedication" and it was "winter". That is Chanukah (Dedication). Looks like they were trying to make the point that he was observing the holiday so I think xtians should also.

Wow, these answers are unbelievable! If Jesus did it and found meaning in it why wouldnt a xtian want to do it? Even if it did have to do with Jews and cleansing the Temple. Arent you as a xtian supposed keep your "Temple of the Holy Spirit" clean? You cant find meaning in that? Getting rid of the evil paganism from the "temple" (body) and rededicating it to God? No meaning? Very strange. Ironic that instead of celebrating a holiday that your savior probably celebrated, you celebrate Dec 25th which was the birthday of the pagan god Mithra long before Jesus was born.

Answer 8

Its not really. None of my decendants were Jewish. Technically, Im a Gentile. Not all Jews, as a matter of fact, hardly ANY Jews became Christians when Christ died.

The holiday was called Hanukkah meaning "dedication" because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration under Antiochus IV. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

Answer 9

I'm Christian and I also celebrate Hannukah. If you study the story of Hanukkah it all points to the birth and life of Christ. The kids love it too because they get gifts for 8 nights.

We have been adopted into the same faith as Abraham:

Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. {accounted: or, imputed}
7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Answer 10

Hannukah celebrates an event that happened years after Jesus was crucified. The Jewish leaders, who refused to accept Jesus and persecuted the apostles, were defending the temple in Jerusalem from the Roman seige.
I believe that Jews are still special people, and have tremendous respect for them. But that doesn't mean they are right about everything.