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If Christmas falls on December 25 every year, why doesn’t Hanukkah fall on the same date every year? It does—but only on the Jewish calendar! Your children may come home from school this year wondering why their Jewish friends are lighting the first Hanukkah candle exactly on Christmas this year when often the two holidays don’t overlap. They may have noticed that, while both Christmas and Hanukkah are winter holidays, Hanukkah appears to “jump around” on the calendar from year to year, from late November to late December, as do most other Jewish holidays. In fact, the last time that the first night of Hanukkah fell on Christmas, as it does in 2005, was in 1997. The Jewish calendar is a lunar-based calendar while the Roman calendar is a solar-based calendar. Every year Hanukkah falls on the 25th day of the month of Kislev. But here’s the difference: while the Roman calendar has a leap year once every four years where an extra day is added to February, the Jewish calendar sometimes needs to add an extra leap month. Basically the Jewish calendar is based on a 19-year cycle rather than the Roman calendar’s 4-year cycle. Every three years in this cycle, an extra month is added to the calendar to stay in sync with the solar seasons. As children learn about the holidays and customs of their friends in our culturally diverse world, parents and teachers may find it helpful to have a Jewish calendar on hand. For a variety of Jewish calendars and children’s books about the holiday of Hanukkah, visit this website . |
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