KISLEW:
The ninth month of the Jewish calendar, corresponding to December. It has either twenty-nine or thirty days. In the Septuagint Kislew is called Xασελεῦ; in the Macedonian, 'Aπελ λαιοç; on Palmyrene inscriptions, 
and in Assyro-Babylonian, "Kislivu." Kislew is twice mentioned in the Old Testament; namely, in Zech. vii. 1 and Neh. i. 1. On the twenty-fifth of Kislew the Ḥanukkah festival (the 'Eγκαίνια of the New Testament, see John x. 22) commences. According to II Macc. x. 6, the festival was celebrated in the manner of the Feast of Tabernacles; viz., by carrying branches and singing songs of praise; indeed, in II Macc. i. 9 the festival is specifically mentioned as "the feast of tabernacles in the month Casleu [Kislew]." According to the Mishnah (R. H. i. 3) the month of Kislew belongs to those six months in which messengers were sent out. See also I Mace. iv. 36-59; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 7, §§ 6-7.
