Thanksgivukkah: This Meeting of Holidays Won’t Happen Again for 70,000 Years!

This Thursday is not only Thanksgiving, but for our friends who are Jewish, it’s also the first full day and the second evening of Hanukkah. The meeting of these two holidays is being called Thanksgivukkah. How rare is it for these two holidays to meet this way? Well, it’s not going to happen for another 76-80,000 years or so.

The last time Thanksgiving and the first full day of Hanukkah shared the same date was 125 years ago and as I said, scientists say that it’s not going to happen again for another 79,043 years!  

How does this happen? Well, Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday every November and doesn’t change from year to year. But then there’s the Jewish calendar that’s a little more complicated and by complicated, I mean that things change every year- a month here, a month there.

The Jewish calendar moves forward very slowly- about four days every thousand years so that’s why it’ll take 70 to 80 thousand years before Thanksgiving and Hanukkah meet again.

Click here to learn more about the science behind this rare holiday mash-up of Thanksgiving & Hanukkah on NationalGeographic.com!

Impress your family this holiday with the FUN science behind your favorite holiday foods!


Looking for even more FUN ways to celebrate?

Buzzfeed’s got a mouth-watering Thanksgivukkah menu, for starters, and this Thanksgivukkah Pinterest board can keep you occupied for hours.

Parents.com offers some fun Hanukkah crafts and recipes for the whole family, and a wealth of activities, crafts, and recipes for Thanksgiving. And don’t miss these Thanksgiving Printables


Company Aims to “Disrupt the Pink Aisle” with Fun Science!

Fewer than 3 in 10 graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are women. And barely 1 in 10 actual engineers are women. Early in a girl’s life, the toys marketed to her are usually things that don’t encourage her to enter those fields. 

In a world where men largely outnumber women in science, technology, engineering and math…and girls lose interest in these subjects as early as age 8, GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation. Construction toys develop an early interest in these subjects, but for over a hundred years, they’ve been considered “boys toys”. By designing a construction toy from the female perspective, GoldieBlox is “disrupting the pink aisle” & inspiring the future generation of female engineers.

This company is teaching young girls that these fields of science can be fun – and apparently, epic by the looks of this super-genius 2-minute video. Watch & Learn! 

If you like what GoldieBlox is doing to innovate for girls’ toys, you could Like them on Facebook. And if you want to see them win a chance at airing their commercial in the Super Bowl, make sure you go & vote here

GoldieBlox spent three weeks building a magical machine of toys with a crew of future inventors, present day engineers, and imagination specialists. Among the leaders was Sabrina, a 7 year old who walked the film crew through the garage portion of “The Princess Machine” of GoldieBlox. Check out all of the behind-the-scenes magic of this epic video! http://bit.ly/HWNb4S — check out the toys that made this possible. 

 

The inventor and CEO of GoldieBlox, Debbie Sterling, went to Stanford University to earn her engineering degree. Looking to make your own mark in the engineering world & STEM movement? Start here to see the list of the best schools for engineering


Want more STEM? Check out our monthly STEM Spotlight!