when was hanukkah

Hanukkah is an eight‑day Jewish festival that always begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually falls in late November or December on the Gregorian calendar. It commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE after the Maccabees’ victory over the Seleucid Greeks.

Core date facts

• Hanukkah starts every year on 25 Kislev and lasts for eight nights and days.

• Because the Hebrew calendar is lunar, the Gregorian dates shift from year to year, typically landing between late November and late December.

• Historically, the first Hanukkah marked the Temple’s rededication in 164 BCE, following the Maccabean revolt.

What Hanukkah commemorates

• The festival marks the successful revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and the reclaiming of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

• It also recalls the later rabbinic tradition of the oil miracle, where a single day’s supply of consecrated oil is said to have burned for eight days.

How the dates look today

• In modern calendars, you will see a different range of December (or late November) dates listed each year, but all correspond to 25 Kislev through 2 or 3 Tevet in the Hebrew calendar.

• Many news outlets and Jewish organizations publish the exact start and end dates each year because of this shifting alignment with the civil calendar.

TL;DR: Hanukkah was “first” celebrated at the rededication of the Second Temple in 164 BCE, and ever since it has been observed every year from 25 Kislev for eight days, usually in December.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.