How are chanukah and Christmas the same?

Answer 1

The only real similarities between Christmas and Hanukkah are that they are both (typically) in December (Channukah can start anywhere from the end of November to the end of December) and gifts are exchanged (only in North America for Channukah).

The stories behind Hanukkah and Christmas are completely unrelated.

Answer 2

The only similarity is that they both usually fall within the same month. That's it. Otherwise, they are completely different. Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus and lasts for 1 day.

Hanukkah is an 8-day Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish military victory against Greek invaders who attempted to force the Jews to assimilate to paganism. It also celebrates the rededication of our Temple after the invaders were defeated.

Other than the gelt (coins) given to children, there is no tradition of gift giving during Hanukkah (although a large percentage of North American Jews do give gifts of some sort these days).

Answer 3

No, they're just different ways of spelling the same word. In Hebrew, the letter H is pronounced in a similar way to the CH in Bach, a sound that doesn't exist in English (it's even more similar to the CH in Welsh words such as goch). To indicate this, Hebrew words beginning with H and commonly spelled with a CH - other examples include challah, the bread which can also be spelled hallah (but rarely is). The exception to the rule is cholent, a slow-cooked dish traditionally eaten on Shabbat, in which the CH is pronounced as in chair.

Answer 4

Hanukkah always starts on the Hebrew calendar date of 25 Kislev, and lasts for eight days. The Hebrew calendar does not line up with the western calendar because it has a completely different leap year system that can shift holidays each year by to 11-28 days.

Here are the coinciding secular dates for the upcoming years. The candle lightings begin on the evening BEFORE the first date:

2011: December 20-28

2012: December 8-16

2013: November 27-December 5

2014: December 16-24

2015: December 6-14

Answer 5

No. Hanukkah is a 2200-year old religious Jewish holiday. Kwanzaa is a secular African-American event founded in 1966.

Answer 6

No. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus.

Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jews in the Maccabean War of 165 BCE.

Answer 7

The transliteration; in other words, how do you spell the SOUND of the word? These are actually the same word - in Hebrew.

Answer 8

Yes, just alternate spellings.

Answer 9

Nothing other than the spelling.