Why Do the Date and Spelling of Hanukkah/Chanukkah Change?

Every year, in the United States, along with the celebration of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November and Christmas on December 25, we have another holiday that comes in almost under the radar, the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Of course, it is a festival celebrated by a minority religious group, but we also have problems because there is no specific indicator of when the eight-day celebration begins. From 2000 to 2020 (to make matters more confusing, in the Jewish calendar, those are the years 5760 to 5780) Hanukkah begins as early as November 28 (2013) and as late as December 26 (2005)... and then, it actually begins at sunset the night before that date.

Then, Hanukkah is not always Hanukkah. Sometimes, it is Chanukkah, sometimes it is... just wait a minute.

What is Hanukkah?

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days. It commemorates the defeat of the Greeks and the restoration of Jewish independence by the Maccabees, a Jewish army led by and named for one Judah or Yehuda Maccabee. Subsequently, the Temple in Jerusalem was cleansed. All the pagan imagery that had been introduced was removed, and, it is believed, a lamp burned in the temple for eight days, although there was only enough oil for one day. The undisputed miracle of Hanukkah is that the Maccabees, so outnumbered by the Greek army, were triumphant.

Why does the spelling of Hanukkah/Channukah change?

The word Hanukkah comes from Hebrew, a language very different from English, even written in a different alphabet (more). So, for it to appear in English it must be transliteratred. That is, the Hebrew letters must be changed from חנֻכה into the Roman alphabet in which English is written.

One problem is that the first sound in the Hebrew word does not exist in modern English. It is the same as the last sound in the name of the German composer Bach (Channukah), not a k sound, but a rough aspiration that might sound like a cross between an h and a k.

Of course, there are many Hebrew names in English (including my own name Michael) which have been standardized in English at least since the 1611 translation of the Authorized or King James Version of the Bible. The traditional Roman Catholic translation of the Old Testament, for instance, has books titles Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, and Habacuc; beginning with the Jerusalem Bible in 1966, however, Roman Catholic translations have in general used the generally accepted spellings such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk.

Why does the date of Hanukkah change?

The date of Hanukkah, like the dates of other Jewish holidays, changes from year to year because the Jewish calendar (more) is a lunar calendar, based on the moon, while the Gregorian calendar in general use in the Western world, is based on the sun. That is the reason that the date of the start of Hanukkah changes on the Gregorian calendar, because the two calendars do not fit.

Holidays of Islam, by the way, change from year to year in the Gregorian calendar, because the Islamic calendar is also lunar. The Christian festival of Easter changes because... oh, well, I wrote an entire article on that (here).

For more information on Hanukkah

You can learn about the Maccabees and the troubled period in which they lived and fought in the First and Second Book of Maccabees, two books in the Apocrypha, which were included in the original King James Version of the Bible but which generally do not appear in modern editions. You can find the text for I Maccabees (here) and the text for 2 Maccabees (here) from the King James Version.

I am not Jewish, but I was delighted to find an enormous celebration of Hanukkah online (here), crammed full Hanukkah traditions. This is not a Hanukkah tradition, but Mormon senator Orrin Hatch has recorded a Hanukkah song (more).

I found the information on Hanukkah in The Jewish Encyclopedia invaluable (here).

So, to all who celebrate any holidays at this time of the year, and meaning no offense to any, I say happy holidays... and, to be generous, happy any days.