Mayor Menino Declares November 28 ‘Thanksgivukkah’ In Boston

Ask and you shall receive.

As the once-in-a-lifetime convergence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving approaches, leading to the creation of the now nationally recognized holiday of “Thanksgivukkah,” supporters from JewishBoston.com asked Mayor Tom Menino if he would sign an official proclamation recognizing the special occasion.

“When we interviewed Mayor Thomas Menino for our Thanksgivukkah video, he said he would officially proclaim November 28 ‘Thanksgivukkah’ in the city of Boston. He kept his word, and we have the proclamation to prove it,” according to JewishBoston.com.

Editor Kali Brodsky said that, initially, asking Menino to sign a document was a light-hearted attempt to bring recognition to the rare holiday. “When we met with him, we were sort of half-joking. We asked him if he would declare it a holiday, though, and he said ‘I have the power, I can do that,'” she said. “So we’re thrilled. We are really excited that he did.”

Earlier this week, Menino gladly drafted up a letter and slapped his signature on it, which reads:

Thanksgiving and Hanukkah will fall on the same day this year for the first time since the late 1800s. The rare holiday combination happens because of the lunar cycle followed by the Jewish calendar. Because the calendar’s ties to the moon’s cycle, rather than the sun’s, holidays fall on different days depending on the year.

A similar occurrence and convergence of the two major holidays isn’t expected to happen again for another 79,000 years, experts claim.

As Boston reported last month, the term was trademarked—and allegedly coined—here in Massachusetts during a meeting between Rabbi David Paskin, co-head of the Kehillah Schechter Academy in Norwood, and a parent who has a child at the school.

That parent, Dana Gitell, went to the Rabbi after noticing the two holidays would fall on the same day, Thursday, November 28, and came up with the word “Thanksgivukkah.” After throwing around some ideas about how the school could celebrate the holiday, others started getting involved and spreading the news.

That’s when reporters from JewishBoston.com approached the mayor. Unfortunately, Brodsky said, there are no events planned for the new holiday in Boston, but Menino is expected to Tweet out the proclamation, declaring it so.