Happy Thanksgivukkah (And Yes, You Can Literally Lose Yourself In A Book)!

WORD COUNT: 40,078

Two photos I've found this week, and one of those I found this morning ... the one on top mashes Thanksgiving (the American holiday with the turkey) and Hanukkah (the Jewish holiday with the menorah) for this year it happens that the day of Thanksgiving coincides with the first night of Hanukkah. Apparently this is not going to happen again for another seven hundred fifty seven centuries -- when you and I aren't around for it -- but maybe you can make more sense of this than me. See the history section of Wikipedia's entry on "Thanksgivukkah" (which apparently did not have that name until this year) ...

"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 those two years than is possible under current U.S. law (as a result of changes between 1939 and 1941); as a result of this confusion, some media reports have mistakenly claimed that Thanksgivukkah has never occurred since Thanksgiving's creation.

Because the Gregorian and Jewish calendars have slightly different average year lengths, over time they drift out of sync with each other. As a result of this, Thanksgiving Day will not fall entirely within Hanukkah again in the foreseeable future. (One physicist has calculated that, if the Jewish calendar is not revised, Thursday, November 28 will not fall during Chanukah again until the year 79811.) However, since the Jewish day does not begin at midnight, but on the sunset before it, those celebrating both holidays will light the second candle of Hanukkah 2013 the evening of Thanksgiving Day, the first candle having been lit on Wednesday, November 27; there will continue to be occasional years in which Hanukkah and Thanksgiving partially overlap, with the first night of Hanukkah beginning in the evening of Thanksgiving. For example, 2070 will be one such year, when the first night of Hanukkah will be the evening of Thursday, November 27. 1918 was another such year.

The phrase was coined by a Boston-area resident who, along with her sister-in-law, created a Facebook page and a Twitter account devoted to the phenomenon. The term was trademarked in Massachusetts. The Manischweitz company, the country’s top producer of kosher food, has spelled the dual-holiday with one fewer "k" towards the end, as "Thanksgivukah." "

And Crown Publishing Group posted on its Facebook page the bottom photo, and that blew me! The caption:

Researchers examine 18th century choirbooks made by an Augustinian friar at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico. (Photo by Mauricio Marat)

I guess people in the eighteenth century were larger than we were to not strain to turn those pages! (Sorry, that just recalls a few Gravity Falls moments ...) Now where were we? Oh yeah, last night I got home before Martha did -- her sister Mary was home with the kids -- and we have actually done about eighty-five percent of our Christmas shopping WITHOUT breaking the bank! Martha asked me if I trusted her to do it, and personally I was happy to let her!

So enjoy your day (whatever you eat) and keep time with the family this Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, David