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Yes, Chrismakkuh Is A Real Thing, But Don't Get Used To It

The first night of Hanukkah falls on Christmas Eve year this, a phenomenon some are dubbing Chrismukkah. In 2013, the second night of Hanukkah was on Thanksgiving and was dubbed Thanksgivukkah.

But why do the dates of Hanukkah vary so widely from year to year?

“The basic thing to know about the Hebrew calendar is that it’s a lunar calendar and not a solar calendar,” said Adam Shear, director of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Hebrew calendar typically has 12 months of either 29 or 30 days each. Months begin on the new moon, and a Hebrew year lasts 353 or 354 days.

“That obviously puts the Hebrew calendar – and there’s no more scientific terminology for this – out of whack with the solar calendar by about 11 days every year,” Shear said.

To keep the calendar more in line with the Gregorian calendar, leap months are added seven times during a 19-year cycle.  Shear said this system keeps important Jewish holidays aligned with particular seasons.

“Passover will stay in the spring, Hanukkah will stay in the winter, the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah will always be in September or October,” he said.

This sort of standardization didn’t become universal until around the 2nd to 4th century. During that time, rabbinical scholars studied the Bible to look for clues about in which seasons particular holidays should occur.

“The most prominent example of that would be the holiday of Passover in the spring,” Shear said. “The term for the month that the holiday appears in in the Biblical text is … the word Aviv, which apparently is not only the name of a month, but is the Hebrew word for Spring.”

Shear said by the year 1000, there is written evidence that the modern Jewish calendar was standardized and its use was widespread.

Shear noted that in modern times, Passover falls in the month called Nissan. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are in Tishri, and the first night of Hanukkah is on the 24th day of the month of Kislev.

In 2016, Kislev began on Dec. 1, which means Hanukkah will begin on Christmas Eve. Hanukkah will run from Dec. 12-20 in 2017 and Dec. 2-10 in 2018.

Photo credit: Gov. Tom Wolf's Flickr account.