Today is Also the First Day of Chanukah, Oy Vey!
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Credit: moby
Chanukah and Thanksgiving! Probably not again in our lifetimes.
From Chabad.org
Chanukah was declared a Jewish national holiday 2,178 years ago. Thanksgiving was declared a national American holiday on the last Thursday of every November by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Before then, Thanksgiving was celebrated on different dates in different states, so we won’t count those. But, using the Chabad.org Date Converter, you will see that Thanksgiving coincided with the first day of Chanukah on November 29, 1888. It also coincided with the fourth day of Chanukah on November 30, 1899.
On November 28, 1918, Thanksgiving was on Chanukah eve. But since it’s still Thanksgiving until midnight, and Jewish days begin at night, that would still mean that Jewish Americans would have eaten their turkeys that Thanksgiving to the light of their first Chanukah candle… the next time the two will coincide would be when Thanksgiving falls on Chanukah eve in the year 2070. That would repeat itself in 2165.
To your gelt and your turkey, your latkes and your stuffing, mix up the Manischevitz with the whatever-you-drink-on-Thanksgiving and enjoy this fabulous melding of two holidays!
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NYC Early 1900s (pfft, totally)
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Finally, don’t forget to play dreidel while you watch football.
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Here’s an extremely moving Chanukah story for you about giving, and since I’m pretty sure Thanksgiving is also about that, we’re good to go. Blessings.