Hanukkah/Thanksgiving

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanukkah will be on Thanksgiving this year.

Thanksgiving is set as the fourth Thursday  in November, meaning the
latest it can be is 11/28. 11/28 is also the  earliest Hanukkah can be.
The Jewish calendar repeats on a 19 year  cycle, and Thanksgiving
repeats on a 7 year cycle. You would  therefore expect them to coincide
roughly every 19×7 = 133 years.  Looking back, this is approximately
correct – the last time it would  have happened is 1861. However,
Thanksgiving was only formally  established by President Lincoln in
1863. So, it has never happened  before.

Why won’t it ever happen again?

The reason is  because the Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out
of sync with  the solar calendar, at a rate of 4 days per 1000 years.
This means  that while presently Hanukkah can be as early as 11/28,
over the  years the calendar will drift forward, such that the  earliest
Hanukkah can be is 11/29. The next time Hanukkah falls on  11/28 is
2146, which is a Monday. Therefore, 2013 is the only time  Hanukkah
will ever overlap with Thanksgiving.

Of course,  if the Jewish calendar is never modified in any way, then
it will  slowly move forward through the Gregorian calendar, until it
loops  all the way back to where it is now. So, Hanukkah would again
fall on  Thursday, 11/28…in the year 79,811. Given our trajectory
with  global warming, it is fair to say humans won’t be here then. And
if  there are no humans, the holidays will be cancelled.

So on November 28th 2013, enjoy your turkey and your latkes. It has
never happened before, and it will  never happen again.