Hanukah (or Chanuka, but in either case, is pronounced like you are clearing the back of your throat), is a memorial to one of the liberations of the Hebrew people. Unfortunately, the King James version of the Bible doesn't contain this story, but some bibles have the book of Maccabees, or you can read it in the Torah.
Something like 168BC, Israel was in control by the Greco-Syrian Empire; and Antiochus, the emperor, outlawed Judaism (and would make the Hebrew people break their laws to prove they had converted), and desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem. One day, a Greco-Syrian soldier went to sacrifice a pig on the altar of the Temple, and Mattathias (a Hebrew priest) killed him. He then fled with his five sons, known as the Maccabees, to the hills surrounding Jerusalem. Mattathias died, but put his son Judah the Hammer in charge. From there, they defeated all of Antiochus' forces and liberated Jerusalem. On the 25th day of Kislev, they cleansed the Temple, but only had enough holy oil to light the Temple's great menorah (a seven branch candelabrum) for one day. Then a miracle happened: that oil that was only supposed to last one day, lasted eight!
The word Hanukah can be broken down into two parts, "hanu", which means "they rested" and "kah", which means "twenty-five". If you sort of put them together, you could say, "they rested on the 25th day of Kislev" or "Hanukah", which would be a good name for this memorial.
It takes seven whole days to become clean or holy, or think on the eighth day it becomes clean. So the Temple having been defiled and needing to become clean, would have to wait eight days; thus I'm sure God's demonstration in the miracle of the oil.
The dreidel is often played at Hanukah, some say because it masked the learning of the Torah back in the time of Maccabees, by making it seem like kids were playing. The dreidel is a four sided top, with four Hebrew letters: nun, gimmel, heh, shin, which stands for "neis gadol hayah sham", or "a great miracle happened there"; or, in Israel, they have peh as the fourth letter, which stands for "poh", or "here". If a Greco-Syrian solder came passing by, they would pretend they were gambling...
...today kids don't gamble with real money, they use gelt: gold foil wrapped chocolate coins. Everyone starts by putting one in the pot (some sort of center pile) and the first person spins!The Maccabees had a battle cry, "Mi Kamoka Baelim Adonai!" or "who is like Thee among their gods, O Lord!". If you take the first letter of each work (in Hebrew), you get MKBI, or Maccabees!
Potatoe latkes and doughnuts have become a traditional food for the Hanukah celebration since they are fried in oil--another symbol for recalling the miracle of the oil (one day's worth lasting eight).