8th day of hanukkah

I admit to having a certain fascination with the Jewish holiday this time around.

No doubt that is because it began at sundown on Christmas Day.

That got me pondering: what holidays did Jesus celebrate?

After all, there was no Christmas yet, nor Easter.

Neither of those would be created until hundreds of years after his death.

Actually, I take that back.

The resurrection of Jesus, which signaled the saving of mankind, was celebrated as early as within a generation of Jesus' death.

His apostle Paul wrote of it, with the date for the remembrance of Jesus as the "sacrificial Passover lamb" coinciding with that of Passover, a celebration of the freeing of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

(Hence, the reason "The Ten Commandments" is always shown at that time of year when Passover, or Pascha, is observed. Christians regard the movie as part of the Easter, or Pascha, tradition, with families watching it annually.)

Within another five generations, i.e., by the mid-2nd century AD, the celebration of Jesus' resurrection was part of tradition with early Christians.

Early followers of the teachings of Christ also celebrated the birth of Jesus, but the date of December 25 was not settled upon for another two hundred years, according to historical records written between 336 and 354 AD.

Interesting stuff, right?

That brings me back to wdjd, to paraphrase a popular acronym from the twentieth century.

Jesus celebrated the traditional high holy days of Judaism, that's what he did.

They had all been around for a couple of thousand years by the time of his birth.

So that means he would have observed Pesach (Passover or Pascha), Shavuot (Pentecost), Kapar (Day of Atonement), Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights), and the Sabbath (starting at sunset on Friday and lasting Saturday until sunset, in accordance with the creation of Night and Light in a single Day).

Except for the Sabbath, these holidays are observed according to the Hebrew Calendar, which keeps track of lunar cycles - new moons, specifically - to mark its months.

The Hebrew Calendar is currently on Year 5785.

That's quite different from the Gregorian Calendar, isn't it?!

Considering that a lunar cycle is 28 days, and the months in the Gregorian Calendar have different numbers of days, it's understandable that the two calendars used by Jews and Christians would not overlap often.

The last time Hanukkah overlapped with Christmas was in 2005.

This time around, the first DAY of Hanukkah was Boxing Day, December 26.

The first NIGHT of Hanukkah began at sundown of Christmas Day.

Today is the eighth, and final, DAY of Hanukkah for Year 5785.

Did I do anything in particular to denote that passage of time?

Did I receive gifts for those eight days?

Did I sing Hanukkah songs or play with a dreidel or light a menorah?

Well..

I blogged about it.

(smile!)