Photo by: Henoc Kivuye
This Thanksgiving and the Hanukkah season overlapped, creating a once-in-an-epoch event. Thursday the 28th celebrated Thanksgivukkah and it won’t happen again for another 75,000 years.
This year marks the first time in modern history that Thanksgiving and the first night of Hanukkah fell on the same day.
Hanukkah is a Jewish tradition celebrating the cleaning and rededicating of Solomon’s temple after the Maccabees defeated the Greeks. According to the story, the wicks of the menorah in the temple were only supposed to burn for one day, but they miraculously burned for eight days.
Prayer, worship, the lighting of a single candle of the menorah each night and frying foods in oil are all a part of the Hanukkah celebration.
“Hanukkah lasts for eight days and it starts sundown, so it actually starts the night before Thanksgiving because in the Hebrew calendar, the days start at sunset,” senior Cari Brady, who is a Messianic Jew said. “We fry food in oil, do a gift a night, eat chocolate and we read the story of the Maccabees.”
While it is agreed that the overlapping holidays didn’t affect either celebration, the general excitement of the holiday-packed day was not equally appreciated.
“I, and nobody I know, cares that Hanukkah is on Thanksgiving,” Connor Hess, a Jewish Oklahoma State University student said. “It’s kind of funny that it’s on Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving is really just celebrated on Thursday and I only really care about Hanukkah on Friday, the Sabbath, so it doesn’t matter. As far as the holidays overlapping, I think my synagogue will have a dinner on Wednesday that will combine the two.”
Brady, on the other hand, was more cheerful about the rare holiday pairing.
“I think it’s really, really cool,” Brady said. “Since Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are my favorite holidays it’s awesome they fall on the same day this year. I think we’re going to do Thanksgiving for lunch and then have Hanukkah celebrations at night.”
Many people who are not familiar with he Jewish faith may not know much about Hanukkah. This year’s coupling of the holidays might give some the opportunity to learn more about the Jewish tradition and the story behind the holiday.
“A lot of people don’t know about the Maccabees because it’s been taken out of a lot of Bibles,” Brady said.
The fact that most Christians do not recognize the books of the Maccabees may be the reason for most people’s unfamiliarity with Hanukkah.
“For a while in early Christianity, these books were accepted,” Grant Testut, assistant professor of Bible, said. “There were quite a few centuries where Christians held on to even the book of Maccabees as part of their Bible. It’s an interesting question as to why we no longer honor these books, but somewhere down the line we let go of these books and no longer included them in our Bibles.”
While the exact reason why gentiles gave up on the book of Maccabees may be lost in history, this rare occasion can serve as an opportunity for the Jewish community to share their customs.
Some schools around the country are incorporating and assimilating the two holidays to teach students more about the Jewish culture. For example, students at Hillel Day School in Farmington Hills, Michigan made “menurkeys,” a mash-up of handprint turkeys and menorahs, for their holiday art projects and learned about both holidays.
Projects like these can help bridge some of the cultural and religious knowledge gaps. Some people of the Jewish faith have taken notice at just how little others really know about Hanukkah.
“The only reason gentiles know about [Hanukkah] is because it is usually lumped in with the other winter solstice holidays,” Hess said.
Whether Hanukkah is regarded as a part of one’s religion or not, the story of the Maccabees could provide a positive message for people to keep in mind while giving thanks this holiday season.
“The Jews persevered and overcame the hate that was fallen upon them, and it’s just a really good message that even though people may persecute you and they may think that your faith is nothing, God is going to be there for you, maybe even in ways you might not understand but just keep having faith,” Brady said. “It was a miracle because they only had enough oil for one day and God let it last them for eight nights.”
This year, Hanukkah began at sunset the night before Thanksgiving on Nov. 28 and ended at sunset on Thursday Dec. 5.
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