Happy Thanukah everyone. This is the first time that Chanukah and Thanksgiving have overlapped in .. welll… wait.. its complicated.. here’s what I found out about that in Chabad.org

Chanukah was declared a Jewish national holiday 2178 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. It gets more complicated. Originally, Thanksgiving was always on the last Thursday of November. In 1939, FDR decided it would be good for the economy to push Thanksgiving back a little, so he declared the fourth Thursday of that November to be Thanksgiving—even though there were five Thursdays to November that year. In 1942, that became federal law. But not all states went along with it. As late as 1956, Texas was still celebrating Thanksgiving a week later than the rest of the country. Which means that if you were a Texan Jewish family, you would be eating that turkey to the light of your first Chanukah light in 1945 and 1956.

Oy.. that’s complicated.. and wouldn’t you know that it was my home state of Texas that messes up the whole specialness of tomorrow night. .. Anyway.. it’s kindof cool thinking that it happened last when our house was a mere 20 year old.. Diane was cooking all day, getting ready for our trip north tomorrow. One of her projects was latke, one of the traditional foods of Chanukah…   The whole house smelled so delicious !

 

The next convergence pf Chanukah and Thanksgiving won’t be until 2070… and then 2156.. how cool is that .. and thats not to mention the extra special visit of   Comet Ison  but more on that if it survives its run in with hte sun…

 

for now, let me wish you and yours a chappy thanuckah.. and a sweet time of piece..

nite all. nite sam

-me