the Chanukah miracle

here is a pretty fascinating article explaining where the amazing 'little vessel of oil that burned for 8 days' story came from. The surprising fact is that it wasn't mentioned in jewish sources until 600 years after the fact. Why?

I've always believed that this was a tale-for-the-kiddies, whose chief purpose was to mask the Winter Solstice origins that, I believe, lay behind all the holidays that tend to cluster around December 21st.

This article, however, presents a different explanation for the '8 days' celebration, that makes perfect sense, historically.

Still, that won't prevent me from thinking, as I do every year, that I am grateful that the Sun is not going to disappear, and that the annual return of Spring will start becoming certain around December 25th.