The eighth night of Hanukkah
Let’s get something straight from the get go: Hanukkah and Christmas have only three things in common. A. They both occur at times of the year when it gets dark early. B. They both involve light and C. They both fall on the 25th of a month.
That’s it. Period. Everything else is an American “keeping up with the Jones’s” phenomenon.
Even though both holidays take place late in the year, one is always pinned to a very specific day and month. Thus Christmas always falls on the 25th of December. The other is tied to the phases of the moon. Does it surprise you both celebrations fall on the 25th of a month? Hanukkah is celebrated on the 25th, but it is not always December 25th. It is observed on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which only rarely falls on the 25th of December, as it will this year.
In 2016, Hanukkah eve falls exactly on Christmas Eve and its first day coincides with Christmas. That, on average, happens only four times in a century. So this year I’d expect the celebrations to be big and highly multicultural, especially in interfaith families.