Celebrated on the 25th day of Kislev of the Hebrew calendar which usually takes place between late November and December, Hannukah commenorates how the Maccabees (a Jewish rebel group reclaimed their temple from the Greek Syrians in 164BCE. The Greeks invaded Palestine and Israel in 323BCE as part of the empire of Alexander the Great. His men then had Jewish practise and the sacred text of Judaism the Torah banned in favour of their own polytheistic religion. They also put their idols in Jewish temples. The Maccabees were able to defeat the Greeks who had armies many times the size of the Jewish armies.

After the battle, the rededicated the Temple to God.Inside the Temple, a holy light was required to be on at all times on a menorah (a multi armed candle holder, usually made of metal) but the Maccabee Jews only had enough oil for the light to burn for a single night. Miraculously the light ended up burning for eight days (this is why Hannukah is celebrated for eight days with each day starting at sundown). This was a sign that God was still present with them, he was listening to them having broken his own rules and reached across the silence.
When it comes to lighting the menorah during Hannukah, the candle in the middle of the Menorah (shamash) lights the candles at sundown during each day of Hannukah starting with the candle on the right and each night after the first, the newest most left candle is lit first.
Dreidels are also played with during Hannukah. Preceding Hannukah, dreidels were created in 175BCE during Greek King Antiochus IV's ban on all Jewish wordship initally as a study tool but today they are used by Jews as a little game. The symbols on a dreidel are 4 Hebrew letters (nun, imel, he and shin) which stand for Nes gadol haya sham (a great miracle has happened there). The Dreidel game is usually played until one player has all of the pieces. No pieces are picked up when it lands on nun, two pieces are picked up when it lands on Shin, half of the pot is picked up when it lands on Hay and the whole pot is picked up when it lands on Gimel.