This year, we’re calling Hanukkah what it really is:
Judean Independence Week.
It’s our celebration of 164 BCE when the Jews of Judea kicked the Seleucid Greek army out of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It’s the time Judah Maccabee rededicated and purified the Temple after the Greeks intentionally defiled the Altar with pigs’ blood. This rededication took 7 days, with one day off for Shabbat – hence 8 total days of Hanukkah.
