Flashes of Lightning
By the time we get to John (c90 CE) few first-hand witnesses are still around. Stories have circulated, opinions expressed, interpretations proposed. John, as always, has his own angle and two points stand out.
First, rumbling thunder is accompanied by lightning, as John positions the Fun Day as a sandwich-filler between the resurrection of Lazarus ( John 11), intolerable to the Jewish heirarchy, and the arrival of the Greeks (12:20-26), contrasting Gentile enthusiasm with Jewish antagonism. The stage was potentially set for conflict.
Second, between the two events (surely with a sense of humour), whereas the Synoptics didn't fully appreciate the Hanukkah element (or deliberately soft-pedalled it), John did and goes to town on it. Power dislikes 'fun and laughter', never more so than in a time of crisis, and as the temperature rises with the approach of Passover John's account ironically seems to detect more than a whiff of Hanukkah and (what is more) fans it.
Mark's 'hosannas' are now specifically 'palm branches' and the cry of the crowd (12:13) is from a familiar Hanukkah Psalm. Momentarily, Passover is in suspense. The Last Supper bypassed. The Entry into Jerusalem on a different planet.
To capture the spirit of Hanukkah think of the Notting Hill Carnival or the medieval Feast of Fools, described by Harvey Cox as a fine balance between Festivity, Fantasy and Social Criticism: a challenge to authority, no custom immune, no tradition too sacred, a levelling of society where the last could be first, and (most important), a world where accepted values could be stood on their head with a wholly different way of living, if only for a day. Almost a summary of the ministry of Jesus, when precisely the last things the Jews wanted in the current atmosphere was any suggestion of turning the world upside down or the fantasy of a new day just around the corner. Thunder and lightning, dangerous uncertainties, threaten stability. Laughter in Lent? No . . . Jesus . . . please! No Hanukkah spirit treading on Passover toes. Cool it! Save the steeple, at all costs. Significantly, and remarkaby, Jesus seems to understand. It's his problem too. But the 'laughter' is irrepressible.