Thursday, November 28

Gobble Tov!

Happy Thanksgivukkah! 

Thanksgivukkah is a holiday name given to the convergence of the American holiday of Thanksgiving and the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013.

Pippaloo
It is a result of a rare coincidence between the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar. Because the calendars are not calculated the same way, Chanukah appears at a different time each year on the Gregorian calendar.

Thanksgiving Day has fallen during Hanukkah at least twice between 1863 (when Thanksgiving was proclaimed a U.S. federal holiday by President Abraham Lincoln) and 2013.


In 1888 Thanksgiving was the first day of Hanukkah, and in 1899 it was the fourth day. Thanksgiving occurred later in 1888 and 1899 than is possible under current U.S. law: as a result of changes between 1939 and 1941, Thanksgiving is always held on the fourth Thursday in November.

The last time Hanukkah overlapped with the fourth Thursday of November was in 1861, before Thanksgiving existed. As a result of this confusion, some media reports have mistakenly claimed that Thanksgivukkah had never occurred prior to 2013.

The next Thanksgivukkah? The year 77,094.

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