Usually Hanukkah is thought of as Christmas’s lamer cousin — sure, you get presents and a Rugrats special, but not much else compared to the enormous conglomerate of media stardom that is Santa Claus and Baby Jesus. Except this year, Hanukkah’s competing with… Thanksgiving. Wow, man. You just can’t win some.
As you all should know by now, the Jewish calendar is lunar-based, so important holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Passover don’t fall on the same day every year. The eight days of Hanukkah tend to fall sometimes in December, but it’s been getting progressively earlier and earlier every year. For 2013, the first day begins on November 28th, which also happens to be where Thanksgiving falls this year (Thanksgiving doesn’t fall on a set date either though it does have a fixed “day,” namely the forth Thursday of November).
Even weirder? This is the only time that Thanksgivukkah will happen… ever. At least, according to blogger Jonathan Mizrahi:
Because the Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out of sync with the solar calendar, at a rate of 4 days per 1000 years (not bad for a many centuries old calendar!) This means that while presently Hanukkah can be as early as 11/28, over the years the calendar will drift forward, such that the earliest Hanukkah can be is 11/29. The last time Hanukkah falls on 11/28 is 2146 (which happens to be a Monday). Therefore, 2013 is the only time Hanukkah will ever overlap with Thanksgiving.
That is, unless the Jewish calendar is left completely alone and Hanukkah is allowed to get earlier and earlier, in which case it’ll eventually loop back around to December again. But wait — you know what that means? Hanukkah in July! Sure, it doesn’t have the same ring as “Christmas in July,” but it actually could happen! Christmas is stuck on December 25th forever.
But anyway, that’s not the important issue here. What’s important is this: is anyone concerned at the idea of two holidays that are on different parts of the calendar every single year fraternizing with one another? Like, what if they start getting ideas? No good can come from this. No good, Ah tells ya!
(via Business Insider, image via rfduck)
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