was a Jewish festival of dedication or purification, which lasted eight days, during which everybody burned lights, each day one more than the preceding, and' said prayers, but did no work as long as these lights burned. It was believed to have been instituted by Judas Maccabseus in memory of the repossession of the Temple, after its profanation by strange gods. Many fables of brutal ceremonies were said (by enemies) to have been practiced, which called forth the most cruel persecutions of the Jews on the part of their foreign masters. (See DEDICATION).