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SEATTLE - For the first time in nearly 20 years, Hanukkah will begin on Christmas Day. The Jewish holiday marking the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem more than 2,200 years ago usually begins a bit earlier.
While Christian holidays follow the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish people use a lunar calendar to mark months and holidays. It uses phases of the moon to calculate the beginning of each month. Because this calendar is 11 days shorter, the holiday dates vary on the Gregorian calendar.
Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of Kislev, the ninth month of the Jewish calendar. Given the lunar cycles, the exact start of festivities changes yearly, though typically falling between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In 2024, celebrations will begin at sundown on Dec. 25 and last until Jan. 2. This will mark only the fifth time the holiday has started on Christmas since 1900. The others were in 2005, 1959, 1921, and 1910.
Next year, the eight-day holiday will start on Dec. 4, wrapping up on the 12th, weeks before Christmas day.
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