DEDICATION FEAST ( rkb. Own ukka, ra i-yKaivat, neainia. from iv, tet, ill 4 xcu•os, kainos, new. Lat. cnea-nio). An annual festival among the Jews, which originated in the Maccalsean period. In December, 16S, the Jehovah Temple in Jerusalem was dedicated to the worship of Zeus Olympias (Baal Itashslta maim, 'Lord of heaven,' which in Dan. xi. 31 ap pears as Nhikkaz 'abomination of desolation') by order of Antioehus IV. Epiphanes, the ruler of the land. An altar to Zeus was set up on the altar of burnt offerings. When Judas Mace:de:mg recovered Jerusalem in B.C. 165 he purged the temple, removed the pagan altar, and put up a new one. The temple was then re dedicated to Jehovah with festivities that. lasted eight days. According to 1.1laec. iv. 52-54, it was on the :25111 of Chislev (December) that the dedi cation took place. on "the same day the heathen had profaned it," while I. Mace. i. 54 gives the
15th of Chislev as the day when the pagan altar was set up. It is probable that both events took place on the 25th, a day that may have been kept by both nations as a celebration of the winter solstice. This is further suggested by the manner in which the dedieation feast has since been kept. Joseph us (Ant. xii. 7, 7) calls it 'the feast of lights,' and the custom of placing lights at the entrance of synagogues and private houses is mentioned in Talmudic literature. The observation of the feast in memory of the deliver ance of Jerusalem is enjoined upon the Egyptian Jews in the letters prefixed to II. Maccabees. Psalm xxx. was the dedication hymn. Consult NVellh liSen, Israelitische find Jadisehe 8e. schiehte (Berlin, 1897).