ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the manner in which the Zionist movement made use of the Festival of Hanukkah to create and disseminate a national myth, the myth of the Maccabees. Hanukkah was one of various Jewish traditional festivals which the Zionist movement employed to assert the continuity of Jewish identity and the national right of the Jews to the Land of Israel. The approach to the traditional festivals was selective, and the principle of selection applied both to the festival itself and to its attendant ceremonies and customs. The festival of Hanukkah was celebrated in public ceremonies and at mass events to foster in the people the Hasmonean spirit of heroism and devotion to the national cause. The link between Hanukkah celebrations in Israeli Jewish society and the national myth of the Maccabees. The ideological differences between the Revisionists and Labour also became apparent in their differing concepts of the Hanukkah festival and of the Hasmonean revolt.
