As I scramble around getting last minute ingredients for side dishes for my potluck Thanksgiving — no, I’m not making the star-of-the-show turkey, but making pies and casserole for 20 is no small feat, either — my next door neighbor is preparing for not only one holiday this Thursday, but two: Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.
Because of something to do with the Gregorian calendar and the Hebrew calendar, the holidays both fall on Nov. 28 this year, an event so rare that it won’t happen again until “2070 and in 2165 — and maybe not again for thousands of years,” according to a recent article from the Dallas Morning News.
My neighbor is enjoying the novelty of the unique double holiday, which many have dubbed “Thanksgivukkah.” She says that she’ll light the menorah and say a prayer after the Thanksgiving feast, and is paying homage to the mashup element of celebrating two holidays at once by making a cranberry applesauce for her latkes and subbing her regular dinner rolls with challah bread, among other culinary ambitions.
For the most part, it appears that both of the holidays will simply commence as usual. Rabbi Debra Robbins of Temple Emanu-El in Preston Hollow says in the aforementioned Dallas News article:
“We are celebrating Thanksgiving in the same ways we always do and Hanukkah in the same ways we always do.”
The editors at Buzzfeed feel a little bit more strongly about Thanksgivukkah, suggesting that it’s akin to “Sharknado,” and “the best thing to happen to American Jews since Larry David’s Thanksgiving rant (which I’m putting below because it is pretty great).”
Even if you won’t be celebrating Thanksgivukkah this year, you can enjoy the Temple Emanu-El choir perform at NorthPark Center’s annual Hanukkah celebration Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Dillard’s court. NorthPark will also have a menorah lighting with light refreshments on Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m.
