This year again confirms my long-held belief that Hannukah marked the birth of Messiah Yeshua, Christ Jesus, the long-awaited Savior described by Isaiah as the “Light to the World.”  He was born on the first day, when the first candle is lit, being proclaimed by Angels and celebrated by shepherds who were in nearby fields due to the cold weather, and on the eighth day, when all candles are full ablaze, Yusef and MIryam took their firstborn son to Jerusalem’s Temple to be circumcised and consecrated to Almighty GOD, a royal Festival of Dedication.

In the years after 300 AD, Emperor Constantine was determined to make Christianity the official religion of his Kingdom, but he had to appease all religions of the realm, thereby announcing that Yeshua’s death at Passover (Pesakh) would be celebrated on the nearby birthday of the Greek goddess Easter, according to the cycle of the moon.  The Jewish holiday of Hannukah was replaced by the Roman holiday marking the rebirth of the Unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus) on December 25, to be henceforth celebrated as the birthday of Jesu Cristo.  This year, 2024 (Jewish year 5785), those dates once again align.