SEASONS: THANKSGIVUKKAH 2013

This year you may experience a new and unfamiliar word during the holiday season.  Add to your vocabulary – Thanksgivukkah.  It is a made up word by those who recognize that this year Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day.  Of course Hanukkah is an eight day holiday, but the first day of that holiday coincides directly with Thanksgiving Day.  The last time this happened was 1888 and it won’t be happening again for another 77,798 years!  No wonder you never noticed it before!  To make this even more interesting – realize that Advent also happens in the middle of Hanukkah this year on December 1^st.  Do 

you think God is telling us to all get together and learn to get along?  I have to wonder!

My first thought is that any numerologist would find these facts very interesting given the significance of the number of 8’s and 7’s being used so often and so much.   That is a deep subject and a completely different article.  

My second thought is that most people will not be affected at all, since not too many families blend the traditional Christian holidays with the traditional Jewish holidays and most people either observe the Protestant things or the Catholic things.  

Guess what?  

My family celebrates them all in light of the fact that Jesus Christ is Messiah!  

So my decision this year is to have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner mid-day and begin to light the Mennorah and recite the Hanukkah blessings that evening. 

Throw the Iron Bowl in the middle of all of this, and we are all set!  LOL.  

The next day after Thanksgivukkah,  I will have our annual family Hanukkah gathering and during that time, in honor of the fact that Jesus is The Light of the World and the true meaning behind the miracle of Hanukkah, (being the light of the world and the greatest miracle of all) we will light our Christmas tree.  

We will not decorate our tree until Advent, we will just shine the lights by themselves for a few days.  On Advent Sunday we will gather to light the advent candles and decorate our tree.  

Gifts will begin to go under the tree on Advent evening and will continue to accumulate until Christmas Eve when we will open them as we will celebrate the CONCEPTION of Christ being at Christmas time.  We have already celebrated Sukkot this year, which is the time we think Jesus was actually born. 

By now you either think I’m the most confused person on earth, or that I blend religions.  Not at all, on the contrary I only follow the practices given in my Christian bible and scriptures, and the Jewish days are there, as well as the history of the birth of Christ.  These are the things that I have studied for years and this is how I think the truth shakes out.  The only blending I’m doing is adding the Iron Bowl….and I think God is a good sport about it all and doesn’t mind a bit.

So, laugh if you want to, but don’t get into a discussion with me about it while I’m having so much fun celebrating over and over.   There is no group of people who know better how to celebrate in spite of all things around them than the Jewish people, add the fullness of Christ into that and realize that some of the Catholic traditions such as the Advent Candles are very significant to the gospel and throw in the traditions of a Protestant Christian Christmas and you have a recipe for a few months of complete joy and celebration!

So, you ask, are my children not confused?  About what, I say?  They have been taught the truth about the religious celebrations of all cultures that we believe are significant in the worship of Christ.  How could that be confusing?  Most of my friends have grandchildren asking those hard to answer questions about the other cultures that they go to school with.  “Grandma, why do the Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah?”  Most of those grandmas can’t really explain it.  My grandchildren will understand it because they will be living it out through the activities that happen at my house.  They will understand all of the Jewish Holy Days in light of Christian theology which 

includes the fact that Christ is the Messiah.  They will be taught the true message and aspects of their Messiah in each of these days.  They will also get the joy of the traditional American holidays and the traditional Christian holidays that this country has always cherished and because of the history lessons they will understand how they all came about.  They will know that Santa Clause was originally a jolly old saint named St. Nicholas, and they will hear the true story of St. Nicholas and his charity and love for the poor.  They will get the true meaning of “giving” for this season.  They will realize that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25^th, but perhaps Mary was visited by Gabriel with the Good News on that day and that was the day that she learned she would have the honor of bearing the Son of God in her body and presenting Him to the world during The Feast of Tabernacles called Sukkot.  They will be told the story of the miracle of the light on Hanukkah and how that story was the first message that told us of the hope of the Messiah.  It is all so beautiful, when you tell it accurately and truthfully, nothing contradicts anything else, and when you understand the Messianic meaning of the Jewish Holy Days, it all fits right into place. 

Who could have more joy?  

Not just at Christmas, but all through the year!