COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Normally, for a family like the Auerbach’s, Christmas Day is pretty low key.
“I hang out with my family, but, mostly playing video games,” said Elijah Auerbach.
“We watch Eight Crazy Nights, even on Christmas Day. We watch Die Hard," said Heath Auerbach.
But on this Christmas Day, the Auerbach’s and several other Jewish families in southern Colorado went to their own celebration. For the first time in nearly 20 years, Hanukkah began on Christmas Day.
“I think this is only the third or fourth time in the last hundred years or something like that," said Temple Shalom Rabbi Jay Sherwood. "Really just a coincidence of the calendar."
If Wednesday’s menorah lighting left you wanting more, Rabbi Sherwood says come back in the new year.
“On the Jewish Calendar, Hanukkah actually happens in two different months. It begins in the month called Kislev, and ends in a month called Tevet," said Rabbi Sherwood. "This year, by coincidence of the calendar, it will go from 2024 and end in 2025.”
The lights celebrating a miracle far greater than simply the story of Hanukkah.
“Someone tried to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. But the Jews won the war and survived," said Rabbi Sherwood.
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