Simple Man's Story of Hanukah

This is the simplification, extracted from a couple places.

First, here is a link to a messianic page which provides great detail. The detail is entangled with the issue of the Jews resisting the Hellenization pushed by the Greek-Syrians of the day.  I think it's worth reading, although all detail may not be perfectly agreeable. (Most of it should be.)
 http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Winter_Holidays/Chanukah/Spiritual_Warfare/spiritual_warfare.html

Now for the "simplification".

Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights,” celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods.
The Hebrew word Chanukah means “dedication,”. It celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple.  Also spelled Hanukkah, it is pronounced with a guttural, “kh” sound, kha-nu-kah, not tcha-new-kah.

In the second century BCE, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs.

A small band of faithful Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, engaged in a successful trhee-year guerrilla warfare campaign against their oppressors, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, culminating in the cleansing and rededication of the temple.

They found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks.

Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

The influence of the Hellenists (people who accepted idol-worship and the Syrian way of life) was increasing. Yochanan, the High Priest, foresaw the danger to Judaism from the penetration of Syrian-Greek influence into the Holy Land.

Yochanan was therefore opposed to any attempt on the part of the Jewish Hellenists to introduce Greek and Syrian customs into the land. The Hellenists hated him. One of them told the King’s commissioner that in the treasury of the Temple there was a great deal of wealth.

The wealth in the treasury consisted donated operating, maintenance, and orphans’ funds (held until orphans came of age). Seleucus sent his minister Helyodros to take the money from the treasury of the Temple.

As Helyodros entered the gate of the Temple, he became pale with fright, fainted and fell to the ground. After he came to, he did not dare enter again.

Josephus referred to the commemoration of the Maccabees as an eight day "festival of lights". Hillel said we should light one candle on the first night and increase the amount by one every day. Shammai thought we should light eight candles on the first night and reduce one every subsequent night.

Early tradition has it that since the Maccabees were unable to celebrate Sukkot in the fall, they should observe it after the Temple was restored (25th of the month of Kislev -lunar calendar) in the year 164 B.C.  Since Sukkot lasts eight days, this became the time frame for Clhanukah.

Immediately after the various festivals of the Jewish year are enumerated in Leviticus 23, the commandment was given to "bring clear oil from hand-crushed olives to keep the menorah burning constantly" (Lev. 24:1-2).

Years after the Maccabean revolt, Yeshua celebrated Chanukah in the same temple.

During the Feast of Dedication (Chanukah) Yeshua was "walking in the Temple in the colonnade of Solomon" (John 10:22-24).