CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Although Dec. 25 is known for celebrating Christmas, this year it is also a day for celebrating another special holiday, which is the first night of Hanukkah.
It's been nearly 20 years since the first night of Hanukkah fell on the same day as Christmas.
This is because the Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar, which causes the start date of Hanukkah to differ each year in the Gregorian calendar. While both Hanukkah and Christmas are celebrated on the 25th, Christmas falls on the 25th of December in the Gregorian calendar, whereas Hanukkah falls on the 25th day of Kislev in the Jewish calendar, according to CBS News.
The Jewish holiday, also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees, a heroic group of Jewish people, over the Syrian Greeks in the 2nd Century BC.
One of the features of the Temple was the lighting of the menorah, the multibranched candelabra, which used oil to light it.
When the Temple was recaptured a very small amount of oil was found which is said would only be enough for one day, but it ended up lasting eight. This is the miracle behind Hanukkah and is why the holiday is celebrated for eight days.
The Hanukkah tradition is that candles are lit each night to commemorate the miracle of the oil lasting longer than expected.
The Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue in Downtown Charleston, which is the oldest continuous-use orthodox Ashkenazi congregation in the country, kicked off the first night of Hanukkah with a celebratory bash.
They called it a Chanukah bash, which represents the same Jewish holiday, but "Chanukah" is the more traditional spelling and reflects the Hebrew language.
The Jewish community gathered at the BSBI and celebrated the holiday kicking off with Hanukkah songs, a Chinese dinner, a dreidel tournament, the lighting of the menorah, as well as eating foods that are fried in oil like potato pancakes and doughnuts tied back to the meaning behind the holiday.
Another activity at the celebration, although not directly related to Hanukkah, was the children making cards for the soldiers in Israel.
"We've joined Jewish communities throughout the world to stand in strong solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the front lines in Israel and so the soldiers in Israel have our full 110% support and this is just a little something, a little touch of what we can do from afar," Rabbi Yosef Bart says.
Bart says seeing everyone come out to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah at the BSBI was very special.
"It's a wonderful, beautiful thing to have on this first night of Hanukkah to have so many of our community, including friends and people who have not been to the synagogue before and people who are coming from out of town to join together to celebrate as one and show Jewish unity, pride, and spiritual strength all at the same time," Rabbi Bart says.
One Jewish community member, Dr. Jacob Rispler, attended the gathering at the BSBI and talked about how it was nice seeing people come together from all three branches of Judaism to celebrate the holiday.
"A lot of the people here belong to different other streams of Judaism. As you know, there are three streams, reform, conservative, and orthodox. This is the oldest orthodox synagogue in the United States, but it's nice that everybody gets together and it's sort of a festive holiday," Rispler says.
The Hanukkah celebrations will continue through Jan. 2.