The Festival of Lights, which commemorates the rededication of the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem after the victory of the Maccabees over Antiochus IV of Syria, in 164 BCE. In the Temple there was only one small bottle of pure oil bearing the seal of the High Priest; according to tradition, it took eight days to prepare the pure oil (obtained from the first drops that emerged from the pressed olives). There was only enough oil for the lamp to burn for one day, yet miraculously it burned for the eight days needed to prepare the new purified oil. The festival is celebrated between the end of November and the end of December, it lasts eight days during which the eight lights of the ritual lamp (hanukkiah) are lit, one more each day. One of the main requirements of the festival is to “publicise the miracle”, and for this reason the lights are kindled at nightfall and placed in a window overlooking the street. In recent years people have started to organise public lightings of large hanukkiot, which are set up in town squares.