◼ Unless you’ve been living on the Jewish equivalent of a desert island, by now you know that Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day this year: the result has become popularly known as the once-in-a-lifetime, heavily-hyped holiday of Thanksgivukkah. - haaretz
◼ Latkes With Cranberry Sauce Make for Perfect Holiday
This year’s confluence is a once-in-about-2,000-lifetimes experience. Hanukkah and Thanksgiving on the same day last happened in 1861, except that Thanksgiving wasn’t established until 1868! And the next time the first day of Hanukkah will happen on Thanksgiving — Thursday, November 28 — will be in the year 79,811. Who can plan that far in advance? So let’s enjoy this solar and lunar overlap and celebrate all that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving have in common. Religiously, there is a direct line connecting Thanksgiving, Sukkot and Hanukkah. Here’s how it works.
American Thanksgiving had a close affinity to biblical Sukkot. Both holidays included the theme of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest. It’s likely that the pilgrims who linked their migration and experience with the ancient Israelites learned to thank God for their harvest from the stories they read in what they called the Old Testament.
And Sukkot, in turn, was very much linked to Hanukkah....
◼ This year, Thanksgiving + Hanukkah equals something very rare: Thanksgivukkah
