The Great Hanukkah Quiz II

Answer: Anne Frank

"The Diary of a Young Girl" is the story of Anne Frank, a young Jewish Dutch girl living in Amsterdam when the Nazis roll into town. She and her family are forced to go into hiding to protect their lives, and Anne kept this diary, published posthumously, while she was able to hide. It was originally published in Dutch as "Het Achterhuis" (The Annex) in 1947 and is a very powerful book.

One of the stories that Anne Frank recounts is the celebration of Hanukkah as well as St. Nicholas' Day (Christmas) as they were close to each other in 1940 and Anne was able to light candles, though briefly, and then celebrated Christmas. Anne Frank and her family were traditionally Jewish, but also celebrated the local holidays, including St Nicholas' Day. Her example of lighting candles away from the window and only briefly is a way for Jews who are fearful of exposing their Jewishness are able to participate in the traditions of the holiday.

Answer: Basketball

"Full-Court Miracle" was released in 2003 by Disney and loosely tells the story of Lamont Carr, a basketball player-turned-coach. The story focuses on Alex, a high-school freshman who loves basketball but his hapless team has awful coaching. He enlists the help of the homeless Lamont, and together they make the team believe that they are able to overcome the odds and defeat the stronger teams. When, in the final game, the electricity goes out and the gas in the generator threatens to be finished, the Hanukkah miracle occurs allowing the gas to last long enough for the game to be played out.

The story mirrors that of the Maccabees who were fighting the Seleucids. Against a stronger, better-funded, and better-trained foe, the Maccabees were able to overcome the odds and defeated the Greek army to liberate their homeland.

Answer: Crazy

"The Chanukah Song" by Adam Sandler was a response to all of the Christmas music that was playing. Sandler says at the beginning of the song that it's for all of the children who don't get a song about their holiday, and references many people in show business who are Jewish.

The "eight crazy nights" lyric refers to the eight nights of Hanukkah, and this is because the little jug of kosher oil, which was supposed to have lasted only one night, was able to last eight until runners were able to find other kosher olive oil to replenish the oil in the menorah at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and keep it lit.

Answer: Epiphanes

Antiochus IV Epiphanes (meaning, 'the great') was the ruler of the Seleucid Empire. This empire came about after the death of Alexander the Great and the fracturing of the great empire that he had set up. Antiochus IV was not originally destined to be the ruler; however, an assassination, a hostage situation, and a murder all led to Antiochus IV stealing the throne for himself. A corrupt leader, he embezzled money and was stealing from the coffers of the Holy Temple with a high priest of his own choosing.

When Antiochus IV went to war against Egypt, reports of his death made their way back to Israel. Hearing this, Jews caused unrest. However, when these rumours were proven false and Antiochus returned, he decided to crush the Jews and laid down some laws that persecuted them greatly. This was the impetus for the great revolt of the Maccabees.

Towards the end of his life, Antiochus began behaving erratically and gained the common epithet "Epimanes", meaning 'the crazy', which was also a play on the chosen epithet, Epiphanes.

Answer: Maccabees

While all of the books named in the answers are deuterocanonical books, the history of the revolt against the Seleucids, specifically against the edicts brought down by Antiochus IV, are all written in the Books of the Maccabees. There are, in fact, eight Books of the Maccabees though only the first two are considered deuterocanonical while the latter six remain apocrypha, or largely unaccepted.

The stories in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees largely overlap. Nevertheless, the author of 1 Maccabees offers straightforward annals of what happened while the author of 2 Maccabees chose to give a wild and exciting story.

Answer: Olive

When the Seleucids began persecuting the Jews, one of the first things that they did was to desecrate the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. They stole the menorah, a ritual candelabra, and defiled all of the kosher jugs of oil in the Temple, save one. The menorah in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem was lit by extra-virgin olive oil that was prepared in a very ritualistic way. When a new menorah was found and it needed to be lit, runners had to go to the olive groves to get new kosher olive oil to light it.

Olive trees can be found all around the Mediterranean region. Olive oil can be made by pressing the olives and collecting the oil from the fruit's juices. Extra virgin olive oil controls the amount of acidity in the oil by using only pure, cold-pressed olive juices. While olive oil can be flammable, it usually reaches its flash point at about 315 degrees Celsius. Olive oil also plays a major role in the cuisine of the Mediterranean region.

Answer: Cricket

Chanaka Devinda, Chanaka Komasaru, Chanaka Ruwansiri, Chanaka Welegedara, and Chanaka Wijesinghe are all names of cricket players from Sri Lanka. Chanaka Welegedara is probably the most successful of the lot, playing international cricket for his country and setting a record for the best economical spell of Twenty20 cricket history in April of 2015, a record that has since been broken.

Hanukkah, while not a holiday that celebrates sports, is all about overcoming odds that are against you, which is something that athletes have to deal with in their careers. Hanukkah was the glorious victory of the Hasmonean rebellion against the Seleucids, and, by proxy, the mighty Greek Empire. If there had been betting at the time of the Maccabees' success against the forces of Antiochus IV, the line might have been something like 25/1 against them.

Answer: Armadillo

On the popular television show "Friends", Ross and Monica Geller come from a Jewish family. However, Ross' ex-wife Carol is not, and their child, Ben, knows more about Christmas than he does about Hanukkah. Ross wants to insert some holiday spirit into his life and tries to get a costume, however, the only costume that is left is an armadillo costume. In it, Ross tries to teach Ben about some of the good things about Hanukkah. This happens in the episode "The One With The Holiday Armadillo" which is in the seventh season of the show.

Teaching is a very important tenet of the Jewish religion. When Antiochus IV swept in and made edicts against the religion, one of the things that was outlawed was the study of the Torah, something that is traditionally done in pairs or groups. However, a story is told of the people who would gather in secret to study together, and when a Greek soldier would show up at their door, the religious literature would be hidden away and spinning tops would be brought out as a cover for their gathering. This is one of the reasons that people attribute to the use of sevivonim, or dreidels, during Hanukkah.

Answer: Claymation

In the weirdly interesting 1997 Windows-based game "Who Stole Hanukkah!?", the player must solve the mystery of the missing miraculous oil jar of Judah Maccabee. While solving the mystery, the player gets an education of the story of Hanukkah as well as a different ending each time as the culprit rotates between eight characters, changing the clues. The game was developed and released by Jemm Productions.

The mystery of how the little jar of oil lasted for eight days has been hotly debated in many circles, both religious and secular. The length of the holiday is also debated, seeing that the miracle itself was only seven days long as the oil was supposed to last the first day anyway.

Answer: Dedication

When the Seleucids attempted to Hellenize the people of Israel, they introduced the gods of the Greek Pantheon into the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish holy place. This was one of the things that sparked the revolt, and became a rallying cry for the band of Maccabees.

When the forces of Judah Maccabee were able to conquer the city of Jerusalem, they found the place in disarray and the Temple desecrated. The term 'Hanukkah' means 'dedication' and refers to the rededication of the Temple for Jewish customs.