As many have noted, the first day of Chanukah coincided with Christmas this year (December 25, 2016).
This happens approximately three times each century. Prior to this year, the most recent occurrence was in 1978, and the next time this will happen will be in 2027.
For completeness, here are the co-occurrences of the first day of Chanukah and Christmas during the past 400 years:
We’ve added a new modern holiday, Yom HaAliyah (יום העלייה). Yom HaAliyah recognizes Aliyah, immigration to the Jewish State of Israel.
More info from Wikipedia:
Yom HaAliyah (Aliyah Day) (Hebrew: יום העליה) is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the seventh of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, to commemorate the historic events which happened on the tenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan (Hebrew: י’ ניסן). The holiday was established to acknowledge Aliyah, immigration to the Jewish state, as a core value of the State of Israel, and honor the ongoing contributions of Olim to Israeli society.
The holiday was first observed on 7 Cheshvan 5777 (November 8, 2016).
Calendars exported from Hebcal via our subscription feeds (using iCalendar format) are typically “perpetual”. That is, they contain events for the current year (Gregorian or Hebrew) plus some number of years into the future. Most downloads (including Apple, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook) support these perpetual calendar subscription feeds.
Using the default options on the Hebcal Custom Calendar page, our calendars will contain exactly 5 years of events (current year plus 4 years into the future). This is true whether you select the Gregorian year or the Hebrew year.
Size limitations imposed by Google and other calendar clients starting in 2016 require that Hebcal limit the number of events per calendar feed. If the options you select generate many events, the feed may need to be shortened.
Option
Feed duration (years)
Number of calendar events per year (approx)
Major holidays only
5
40
Major & minor holidays, Rosh Chodesh, Minor Fasts, Special Shabbatot, Modern Holidays
5
95
Weekly Torah portion on Saturdays
5
50
Candle lighting times
4
120
Days of the Omer
4
49
Show Hebrew date for dates with some event
3
variable
Show Hebrew date every day of the year
2
365
Daf Yomi
2
365
Daf Yomi and Hebrew date every day of the year
1
730
Table of Hebcal options and corresponding effect on calendar feed duration
Workaround: multiple subscriptions
Note that if you’d like to include the Hebrew date for every day of the year, you can subscribe to that calendar via a separate calendar feed at our Jewish Holiday downloads page. Look for Hebrew calendar dates (English) or Hebrew calendar dates (Hebrew). Daf Yomi and other large single-purpose iCalendar feeds are also available on that page for Apple, Google, and any iCalendar application.
An added advantage of the multi-subscription approach is that you can choose separate colors in Google Calendar or iOS/iCloud calendar for each calendar event feed.
Advanced users: download and then upload
All that said, if you’d like to download future events to Google Calendar or another program that supports iCalendar (.ics) files such as macOS Calendar or Outlook, you may utilize Hebcal’s alternative download instructions below. This technique requires a laptop/desktop computer and generally does not work well on a smartphone or tablet. Note that once downloaded, these .ics files are no longer managed by Hebcal and will not refresh.
Please note that these instructions are recommended only for advanced users. If you don’t take great care to create a separate calendar and import Hebcal events into that new, separate calendar, you may unintentionally add hundreds of events to your personal calendar.
We are pleased to announce that we have released an Alexa Skill for Hebcal for users with an Amazon Echo device.
Skills are new voice-driven capabilities that enhance the functionality of your Alexa device. Turning on the Hebcal skill lets you ask questions such as:
Alexa, ask Hebcal when Shabbat starts.
Alexa, ask Hebcal for candle lighting times in 02906.
Alexa, ask Hebcal for the Torah portion.
Alexa, ask Hebcal when is Chanukah in 2018?
Alexa, ask Hebcal for today’s Hebrew date.
Alexa, ask Hebcal for the Omer count.
Alexa, ask Hebcal for Daf Yomi.
Alexa, ask Hebcal to convert October 20th.
Alexa, ask Hebcal when is Rosh Chodesh?
Alexa, open Hebcal.
Hebcal is pronounced HEEB-kal, as in HEBrew CALendar.
Open the left navigation panel, and then select Skills.
Scroll through the list of available skills. When you want to go to a different page, select Next or Previous at the bottom of the list.
Tip: You can also use the Search bar to find a specific skill, or sort skills by title, average customer review, or release date.
When you see a skill you want to use, select Enable.
Look for new features in the coming months. We’re planning to add candle-lighting times for Shabbat and holidays, Daf Yomi, and more. Update March 2016 – these features are now available!
If you have a suggestion for what you’d like to see in the Hebcal Alexa Skill, please share your feedback with us!
Due to popular demand, we’ve added support for Chanukah candle-lighting times.
If you specify a city for Shabbat and Yom Tov candle lighting times, you’ll see Chanukah candle lighting show up as a timed event. If you don’t enable candle-lighting times (and instead choose the generic Diaspora or Israel locations) you’ll see Chanukah events show up as all-day (untimed) events reminding you to light candles that evening.
Candle-lighting times should show up on all iCalendar feeds (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, iPhone, etc) when the application refreshes Hebcal events. This could take up to a week for the refresh, depending on the app.
