Mbostrom2's Blog

This year the 8 day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins on Christmas Eve and ends on New Years Day 2017. This is an annual holiday celebrated on the Hebrew month of Kislev on the 25th day. Because the Gregorian calendar is solar and the Hebraic calendar is lunar, their calendars rarely coincide, especially the years that are a leap year. The Gregorian calendar adds one day to the month of February, while the Hebraic calendar adds one entire month. Both calendars had a leap year this year – unusual. (I will be sharing the history of Hanukkah before December 24)

Hanukkah has only fallen on Christmas Eve five times in 100 years. Using 5 times in 100 years, most of us would think it happened every 20 years. But there was no pattern with these occurrences. The first was 1918, the 2nd three years later, the 3rd was thirty-eight years later, the 4th was forty-six years later and 5th was eleven years later.

I found a very unusual pattern of shift in national/world power in each of these years. There was much more that happened in history, but these are the things that stood out to me that changed history.

1918

• End of WWI
• US Elections – President Woodrow Wilson elected 2nd term, Republicans gain control of the House
• British began rule of Promised Land (Israel) and began the name of Palestine

1921

• Warren Harding inaugurated 29th US President
• Winston Churchill becomes British Minister of Colonies
• Lenin begins “New Economic Policies”, leading to 70 years of Communism
• Communist parties begin: Belgium, South Africa (CPSA), China, Spain
• Hitler becomes chairman of the National Socialist Party
• The Sturmabteilung or SA (the “Brown Shirts”) is formally formed by Adolph Hitler
• Iraqi Army is formed
• The Emirate of Transjordan is created
• After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieves sovereignty
• US signs peace treaty with Germany
• Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi is assassinated in Tokyo
• Partito Nazionalista Fascista formed in Italy by Mussolini

1959

• Fidel Castro comes into power in Cuba; President Eisenhower recognizes Castro’s new government (4 months later Eisenhower shuns Castro and goes golfing)
• Alaska and Hawaii become states, making the 50 states
• 22 year-old Saddam Hussein forced into hiding
• Syria withdraws the last of its military garrison from Lebanon, ending 29 years of military occupation

2005

• Mahmoud Abbas wins election of Palestinians
• Pope John Paul II dies
• Gaza Pullout
• Hurricane Katrina
• Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attends a “World Without Zionism” conference. He calls for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and condemns the “peace process.”
• Angela Merkel, 51, becomes Germany’s first female chancellor

2016

• Britain exits EU after Referendum (BREXIT)
• Donald Trump wins presidential election, 45th President
• Republicans take over House and Senate
• Fidel Castro dies
• North Korea claims successful H-bomb test
• Iran and Arabic countries cut ties – ambassadors recalled