The most widely known element of the modern Hanukkah observance, the story of a single day's supply of ritually pure oil miraculously lasting eight days while the temple menorah was relit, does not appear in either First or Second Maccabees, the earliest surviving detailed accounts of the rededication, but emerges considerably later in rabbinic literature, most notably in the Talmud, compiled centuries after the events themselves.
Historians of the period generally read this gap as reflecting a shift in emphasis over time: the books of Maccabees, composed closer to the events, present the rededication primarily as a story of military and religious victory against oppression and desecration, while the later rabbinic tradition, writing in a different political context under Roman rule, developed the oil narrative as a way of emphasizing divine miracle over the military triumph the earlier militant Maccabean history had celebrated, a shift some scholars connect to rabbinic caution about celebrating armed revolt too openly within Roman controlled Judea.
Hanukkah developed over the following centuries into a widely observed eight day festival marked by the nightly lighting of a nine branched menorah, one additional candle each night alongside a helper candle, the recitation of specific prayers, and customs including fried foods commemorating the oil and, in modern practice, gift giving, particularly within diaspora Jewish communities.