During the holiday season, there are more holidays than just Christmas. For Jewish people, the holiday season typically brings the holiday Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. However, this year the popular Jewish holiday came early on the Hebrew calendar, making Hanukkah collide with Thanksgiving. This rare occurrence of celebrating both was referred to as, “Thanksgivikah.”

“I think the timing is really weird. It seems too early to have Hanukkah, but it’s also kind of cool because Hanukkah won’t be on Thanksgiving again for something like another 7000 years,” senior Ariel Michaelson said.

On Hanukkah Jewish people enjoy celebrating the miracle of oil lasting eight days by lighting the menorah, an eight-candle candle holder, eating latkes (fried potato pancakes), and playing dreidel for eight days. However this year, many people’s Hanukkah celebrations were accompanied by thanksgiving favorites such as turkey and stuffing.

“We didn’t do anything particularly special except for decorate the table with both Hanukkah and Thanksgiving things and we had latkes as an appetizer,” Michaelson said.

Summary: Thanksgiving and Hanukkah happen to fall on the same date this year. This unusual event has students doing unique customs both celebrating Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.