Re: Is Thanksgiving Celebrated in Your Household?
The funny thing is that Hannukah is one of the least relevant Jewish holidays. It really had nothing to do with gift giving or lavish celebrations. And the holiday is not fixed around Christmas time. The Judaic calander is lunar-solar.
The Jewish month of Kislev can currently start as early as November 3 or as late as December 2, which means that the first day of Hanukkah can come as early as November 28 or as late as December 27.
The reason for the broad range of possible dates is that the Jewish calendar is lunar-solar. The months are based on the cycles of the moon. But the calendar changes the lengths of those months, and even how many months are in a year, to make sure that Passover always falls in the spring. This complex system — put in place by Rav Shmuel in the first half of the first millennium CE — ensures that the Jewish date and the secular date match up every 19 years. (By contrast, the Muslim calendar is purely lunar, which is why Ramadan can fall during any time of the solar year.