What is the connection between Sukkot and Hanukkah?

Answer 1

The timing of the holiday of Hanukkah is connected to the Jewish calendar which is based on the lunar cycle. Hanukkah begins on the Hebrew date 25 Kislev. This date is the darkest day of the year in Israel with a waning moon and few daytime hours and 25 kislev usually falls out around the date of Dec. 21.

Answer 2

Christmas is celebrated in the Winter because it was once (and still is for many people) the pagan festival of the Winter Solstice.

Hanukkah is NOT always celebrated in the winter. In fact, it's usually celebrated in late Autumn, but the season has nothing to do with Hanukkah. It simply celebrates the victory of the Jews against the Assyrian-Greeks in the Maccabean War.

Answer 3

It is believed that the real reason Hanukkah is 8 days, is because it was a belated Sukkot celebration, since Sukkot couldn't be celebrated during the Maccabean War.

Answer:

The above is a non-traditional answer. Hanukkah is eight days because the oil of the Temple's menorah miraculously burned that long (Talmud, Shabbat 21b).

Answer 4

No special reason. Hanukkah starts on the day (25 Kislev) on which the Temple was rededicated (2nd century BCE), which happened in the winter. Note that Hanukkah was instituted before CHristmas.

Answer 5

Other than the fact that both occur within a month of each other, there is no connection. Hanukkah is a Jewish occasion which commemorates events that occurred about 160 years before Christianity began.

Answer 6

Both Christmas and Hanukkah fall in December (although the latter may fall in November).