Thanksgivukkah is a holiday name

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

given to the convergence of the American holiday of

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

and the first day (and second night) of the

Jewish holiday Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' (, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed by Jews throughout the Hebrew calendar.This article focuses on practices of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. ...

of Hanukkah on Thursday, November 28, 2013. It was the result of a rare coincidence between the

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(whose dates reflect both the moon phase and the time of the

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, and which can have between 353 and 385 days per year) and the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian cale ...

. Because the calendars are not calculated the same way, Hanukkah appears from year to year on different dates on the Gregorian calendar, ranging from late November to early January. The term "Thanksgivukkah" was trademarked by Dana Gitell, a

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-area resident who, along with her sister-in-law, Deborah Gitell, created a

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page and a

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account devoted to the phenomenon and bought the URL. ''

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'' reported that the idea was popular all over the U.S. There has been some disagreement about the name: the

Manischewitz Manischewitz (; ) is a brand of kosher products founded in 1888 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and best known for its Matzah, matzo and kosher wine. It became a public corporation in 1923 but remained under family control until January 1991, when it was ...

company, the country’s top producer of

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

food, has spelled the dual-holiday with one fewer "k" towards the end, as “Thanksgivukah”; and Israeli newspaper ''

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'' posed the question: "Why 'Thanksgivukkah'? Why not 'Chanksgiving?'". ''Haaretz'' points to a clip from '' The O.C.'', the source of the portmanteau " Chrismukkah", as the basis of the "Thanksgivukkah" portmanteau.

History

Thanksgiving Day fell during Hanukkah at least twice between 1863 (when Thanksgiving was proclaimed a U.S. federal holiday by President Abraham Lincoln) and 2013: in 1888 Thanksgiving was the first day of Hanukkah, and in 1899 it was the fourth day. The 1888 coincidence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah attracted some media attention at the time, with the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...

'' reporting on joint Thanksgiving–Hanukkah services held in "various synagogues" and a sermon given by Rabbi Frederick de Sola Mendes. Thanksgiving occurred later in 1888 and 1899 than is possible under current U.S. law: as a result of changes between 1939 and 1941, Thanksgiving is always held on the fourth Thursday in November. The last time the fourth Thursday of November fell within Hanukkah before 2013 was in 1861, before Thanksgiving existed. As a result of this confusion, some media reports have mistakenly claimed that Thanksgivukkah had ''never'' occurred prior to 2013. Because the Gregorian and Jewish calendars have slightly different average year lengths, over time they drift out of sync with each other. As a result of this, the first day of Hanukkah will not precede or coincide with Thanksgiving Day again in the foreseeable future. (One physicist has calculated that, if the Jewish calendar is not revised, Thursday, November 28 will not fall during Hanukkah again until the year 79811, once it has drifted all the way around the cycle of the Gregorian calendar and back to November. Many media sources have reported this "tongue-in-cheek" calculation as a serious estimate of the date of the next Thanksgivukkah.) However, since the Jewish day does not begin at midnight, but on the sunset before it, there will be two more years in which Hanukkah and Thanksgiving ''partially'' overlap, with the first ''night'' of Hanukkah beginning in the evening of Thanksgiving. These will be the evenings of Thursday, November 27, 2070 and Thursday, November 28, 2165. (The most recent such year was 1918.)

Celebrations

Mayor

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three mont ...

of Boston said he would proclaim November 28, 2013, “Thanksgivukkah,” saying through a spokeswoman: "This is a big deal, a once-in-a-lifetime event.” Massachusetts State Representative Louis Kafka and loca
rabbi David Paskin
planned to host a gathering close to Thanksgivukkah, that will include a turkey-shaped menorah to give to fellow representatives to put in the

Massachusetts State House The Massachusetts State House, also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House, is the List of state capitols in the United States, state capitol and seat of government for the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, lo ...

. U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

gave a speech likening the struggles of the

Maccabees The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees (, or , ; or ; , ), were a group of Jews, Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty ...

to those of the Pilgrims.

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

included a giant

dreidel A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, ( ; , plural: ''dreydlech''; ) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in Europe and Latin America ...

in its Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. The Dirty Sock Funtime Band wrote a song, "Hannukah, O Hannukah (Introducing the Menurkey!)", and included it in a show in New York City. A rabbi in

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, granted a pardon to a kosher turkey in honor of Thanksgivukkah. A

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-based festival co-produced by Deborah Gitell and singer/songwriter Craig Taubman was held on November 29, 2013, at the Pico Union building, featuring the Moshav Band and hip hop rapper Kosha Dillz. The festival was funded by a campaign on

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

platform Jewcer. The Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Pikesville, Maryland, set off fireworks to celebrate Thanksgivukkah. President Obama recognized Thanksgivukkah at the official White House Hanukkah reception on December 5, singling out Menurkey-creator Asher Weintraub as well as Dana and Deborah Gitell for coining the phrase "Thanksgivukkah". Outside the United States, in London, England, the Saatchi Shul hosted a Thanksgivukka Friday night dinner. In

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, Israel, Nefesh B'Nefesh co-hosted a Thanksgivukka Friday night dinner and clothing drive. There have been parodies of it, by satirist

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and by satire news program '' Dish Nation''. Comedian Yisrael Campbell starred in a fake movie trailer for a horror movie titled ''Happy Thanksgivukkah'', where a

gentile ''Gentile'' () is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is used as a synony ...

family's thanksgiving dinner is invaded by a large Jewish family celebrating Hannukah. There has been opposition to the holiday on the ground that the syncretism trivializes both festivals. An Anti-Thanksgivukkah anthem was featured in '' Heeb Magazine'' and subsequently in ''

The Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...

''. Jewish

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singing group Six13 released a music video on November 25, 2013, entitled "The Thanksgivukkah Anthem," which recounts both holidays' history and celebrates the fact that they were occurring on the same day.

Food

Numerous suggestions were publicly made for combinations of traditional dishes of both holidays.

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posted "How to Celebrate Thanksgivukkah, the Best Holiday of All Time," with recipes for

-brined turkey with

challah Challah or hallah ( ; , ; 'c'''hallot'', 'c'''halloth'' or 'c'''hallos'', ), also known as berches in Central Europe, is a special bread in Jewish cuisine, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat ...

apple stuffing and

latke A latke ( ''latke''; sometimes romanized ''latka'', lit. "pancake") is a type of potato pancake or fritter in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine that is traditionally prepared to celebrate Hanukkah. It is commonly eaten in Israel and the Jewish diaspor ...

s with cranberry applesauce. Others focused on sweet potato latkes, latke-crusted turkey cutlets, stuffing a turkey with challah bread, pecan pie rugelach, turkey doughnuts, pumpkin kugel, sufganiyot filled or topped with a sweet cranberry or apple compote or canned pumpkin, and sweet potato, prune and carrot tzimmes.

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restaurant Kutsher’s Tribeca announced that it would serve a three-course Thanksgivukkah dinner, including sweet potato latkes topped with melted marshmallows. The

company launched a multimillion-dollar multimedia campaign in support of the holiday.Stuart Elliot
"Carve the Turkey and Pass the Latkes, as Holidays Converge"
''The New York Times'', October 21, 2013

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chef and 2013 Kosherfest honoree Laura Frankel, Executive Chef at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, curated a menu of Thanksgivukkah dishes that included culinary hybrids like pumpkin-spice latkes and turkey

schnitzel Schnitzel () is a thin slice of meat. The meat is usually thinned by pounding with a meat tenderizer. Most commonly, the meat is breaded before frying. Breaded schnitzel is popular in many countries and is made using veal, pork, Chicken as foo ...

with thyme and orange zest.

Products and shopping

Thanksgivukkah was characterized by products promoted on and sold online. Funds of over $48,000 to produce a turkey-shaped menorah, dubbed a "menurkey," were raised by nine-year-old Asher Weintraub in Manhattan, New York, via a

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campaign. A crafter in Seattle, Washington, created another Thanksgiving-inspired menorah after she saw a camel menorah and decided she needed a "Turkorah". Some suggested that the

holiday shopping season A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are ofte ...

would be impacted by the convergence, and that retailers might have earlier holiday promotions. A Thanksgivukkah pop-up store opened in Atlanta, and the

company produced a line of products for this day.

Similarities between Thanksgiving and Hanukkah

While the imagery and products surrounding the day were light-hearted, advocates contended it had a broader significance resonant with American democracy. “There are amazing similarities between the Pilgrims’ quest for religious freedom and what the

were fighting for,” one advocate told the ''

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'', referring to the Hanukkah story of Judah Maccabee, who led the

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’ fight for freedom from and military victory over the

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in the 2nd century BC. “This a great opportunity for

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s to celebrate this country and for everyone to acknowledge the greatness of our shared

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s.” In 1888, the ''

'' wrote that "The two festivals merged well together," describing Hanukkah as "a thanksgiving festival for deliverance from… tyranny". A "Thanksgivukkah Manifesto" has been penned, claiming that it is the ideal holiday for increasingly secular American Jews. Additionally, some have claimed that both Hanukkah and Thanksgiving have roots in the Jewish harvest festival of

Sukkot Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths, is a Torah-commanded Jewish holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Israelite ...

Similar holidays

'' Chrismukkah'' is a portmanteau neologism referring to the merging of the holidays of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

's Christmas and

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's Hanukkah. The term was popularized by the TV drama '' The O.C.'' Chrismukkah is also celebrated as an ironic, alternative holiday. Similar neologisms such as ''Chrismahanukwanzakah'' and ''HanuKwanzMas'' blend Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. In ''A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish'' (Rutgers University Press, 2012), author Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut discusses the phenomenon of hybrid Jewish holidays such as Chrismukkah during the December holiday season in the US, and the Americanization of Hanukkah and the holiday season for Jews.

References

{{Hanukkah Footer History of Hanukkah November observances Thanksgiving (United States) Unofficial observances 2010s neologisms November 2013 in the United States 2013 in Judaism Jewish American culture