Hanukkah always begins on the 25th of Kislev, a fixed date on the Hebrew calendar. That calendar follows the moon, so its ordinary year runs about eleven days shorter than the solar year, and a leap month added seven times every nineteen years pulls it back into line. So the date on your wall calendar shifts every year.
In 2026, the first candle is lit at sundown on Friday, December 4, and Hanukkah ends at nightfall on Saturday, December 12, according to Hebcal. Below is how the calendar behind that date actually works: the moon, the leap month, the nineteen-year cycle, and why the holiday can brush Thanksgiving one year and Christmas Eve the next.
Does Hanukkah Really Change Dates?
On its own calendar, never. Hanukkah has started on the 25th of Kislev since the days of the Maccabees, and the date comes straight from the story. After the Maccabees retook the Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated the altar, the First Book of Maccabees says that Judah and his brothers ordained that the dedication "should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu," as the text reads in the translation on Sefaria. Casleu is Kislev.
The Talmud repeats the rule in almost the same breath. "On the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the days of Hanukkah are eight," the sages teach in tractate Shabbat 21b, right before telling the story of the single cruse of oil.
So when someone asks why Hanukkah moved, the honest answer is that it did not. The Gregorian calendar, the one on the fridge, is the one that keeps sliding underneath it.
How Does the Hebrew Calendar Work?
The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar. Its months follow the moon, and its years are kept in step with the sun. Those two goals pull against each other, and the whole system is built to settle the argument.
Here is the moon side. Each Hebrew month begins with the new moon and runs 29 or 30 days. Twelve of those months make a year of 354 days, according to Chabad.org, which notes that a regular year can also run 353 or 355 days. A solar year, at almost 365.25 days, is nearly eleven days longer.
That eleven-day gap is the engine of the whole question. If the calendar did nothing about it, every Jewish holiday would arrive about eleven days earlier on the Gregorian calendar each year, and would keep sliding backward through the seasons forever.
For centuries, the months were not even calculated in advance. As My Jewish Learning describes, the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem would receive witnesses to the first sliver of the new moon and then declare the new month. Beacon fires on mountaintops, and later messengers, carried the news to distant communities. According to Jewish tradition, the sage Hillel II later set out the fixed, calculated calendar that Jewish communities everywhere still use, a calendar that Chabad.org says does not "lose" or "gain" time the way some other calendars do.
Why Doesn't Hanukkah Drift Into Summer?
Because the Torah ties the holidays to the seasons, and the calendar adds a whole month to keep them there. The anchor is Passover. Deuteronomy 16:1 commands, in the JPS translation on Sefaria, "Observe the month of Abib," the month of spring, for the Exodus. A purely lunar calendar would eventually push Passover into winter. Chabad.org puts it plainly: without leap years, Passover would occur eleven days earlier each year.
The fix is a thirteenth month. In a leap year, the calendar adds a second month of Adar. Chabad.org explains that the added month is called Adar I, inserted before the regular Adar, which becomes Adar II in a leap year. Purim, on the 14th of Adar, moves to Adar II in those years.
Leap years follow a fixed nineteen-year cycle with seven leap years in it. Per My Jewish Learning, they fall on these years of every cycle:
- Year 3
- Year 6
- Year 8
- Year 11
- Year 14
- Year 17
- Year 19
A leap year usually runs 384 days, Chabad.org notes, though it can run 383 or 385. Seven of those longer years in every nineteen are just enough to keep the lunar months and the solar seasons in step over the long run. Hanukkah is not the reason for the leap month, but it rides along with the correction. Because Kislev stays tied to the start of winter, Hanukkah stays a holiday of long nights and early darkness, exactly when lighting candles means the most.
Why Does Hanukkah Jump Later Some Years and Earlier Others?
Here is the pattern in practice. In an ordinary year, Hanukkah lands about eleven days earlier than the year before. After a leap year, it jumps roughly three weeks later. The leap month matters only when it falls between one Hanukkah and the next. Adar comes in late winter, months after Kislev, so a leap month added in one Hebrew year pushes the following Hanukkah later.
The coming years show it clearly. These first-candle dates come from Hebcal, and the leap years are the ones Hebcal lists with Purim in Adar II:
- 2026 (Hebrew year 5787): first candle Friday, December 4. The year 5787 is a leap year, the 11th of its nineteen-year cycle.
- 2027 (5788): first candle Friday, December 24. That is 20 days later, because the extra Adar of 5787 came in between.
- 2028 (5789): first candle Tuesday, December 12. That is 12 days earlier, a regular year.
- 2029 (5790): first candle Saturday, December 1. Another 11 days earlier.
- 2030 (5791): first candle Friday, December 20. That is 19 days later, because 5790 is a leap year, the 14th of its cycle.
Read down that list and you can see the calendar breathing. Down by eleven or twelve days, down again, then back up by nearly three weeks. Over any nineteen years, those moves cancel out, and Hanukkah stays in its season.
What Is the Earliest and Latest Hanukkah Can Start?
In our era, the first candle falls between the end of November and the end of December. We pulled Hebcal's Hanukkah dates for every year from 2000 through 2060. In that span, the earliest first candle is the evening of November 27, in 2013 and again in 2032. The latest is the evening of December 26, in 2043.
The early edge produced a very American Jewish moment. In 2013, the first candle was lit on the evening of Wednesday, November 27, so the first full day of Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 28. People called it Thanksgivukkah, and JTA described it as "a calendar rarity." For one Thursday, being Jewish and being American shared the same table.
The late edge brings Hanukkah right up against Christmas. In 2027, the first candle is lit on Christmas Eve, and the eighth day ends at nightfall on Saturday, January 1, 2028, so that Hanukkah starts in one Gregorian year and finishes in the next. It is a good year to brush up on what Hanukkah is and is not compared with Christmas, because the overlap always brings questions from neighbors and coworkers.
Why Does Hanukkah Begin the Evening Before?
Because the Jewish day begins at nightfall, not midnight. Every Hebrew date runs from evening to evening, so the 25th of Kislev starts when the sun goes down on the day before. Hebcal's listing for 2026 shows it plainly: during the daytime on Friday, December 4, the Hebrew date is the 24th of Kislev. At sundown it becomes the 25th, and the first candle is lit that night.
That is why calendars disagree at first glance. Some list Hanukkah 2026 as starting December 4, counting the first evening. Others list December 5, the first full day. Both are describing the same holiday. If you want the night-by-night candle count and the Shabbat timing rules, our guide on how to light a Hanukkah menorah walks through every step.
Why Does Hanukkah End on a Different Hebrew Date Some Years?
Because Kislev itself can be 29 or 30 days long. Chabad.org explains that Cheshvan and Kislev, the two months before Tevet, can both have 30 days, both have 29, or have one of each. Chabad.org counts exactly fourteen different patterns of Jewish year, set in part by the day of the week on which Rosh Hashanah falls.
The start never moves, but the finish can. Eight days from the 25th of Kislev always carries Hanukkah into the next month, Tevet. Hebcal's dates show both versions:
- In 2026, Kislev has 30 days, so the eighth day of Hanukkah falls on the 2nd of Tevet.
- In 2029, Kislev has 29 days, so the eighth day of Hanukkah falls on the 3rd of Tevet.
The same flexibility explains why the gap between Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah is not identical every year. In each year from 2026 through 2030, Hebcal's dates put the first Hanukkah candle 83 or 84 days after Rosh Hashanah begins. The one-day difference comes from Cheshvan. Hebcal's date converter shows a 30th of Cheshvan in 5787, 5788, and 5791, the 84-day years, and none in 5789 or 5790, the 83-day years.
How Can You Predict Hanukkah From Rosh Hashanah?
That steady gap makes for a useful rule of thumb. Once you know when Rosh Hashanah starts, Hanukkah is a little under twelve weeks later. Here is how it lines up, from Hebcal:
- 2026: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown September 11. First candle December 4.
- 2027: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown October 1. First candle December 24.
- 2028: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown September 20. First candle December 12.
- 2029: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown September 9. First candle December 1.
- 2030: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown September 27. First candle December 20.
So an early Rosh Hashanah, in the first half of September, usually means an early Hanukkah, around the start of December. A late Rosh Hashanah, at the end of September or into October, means a Hanukkah close to Christmas. The same logic runs through the rest of the year. Passover, Shavuot, and every other holiday ride the same calendar, which is why they all shift together.
Where Can You Find Hanukkah's Date for Any Year?
You do not need to do the math yourself. Hebcal's free Hanukkah calendar lists the dates for years ahead, and your synagogue or local Chabad center can tell you the exact sundown and nightfall times where you live. For this season, our Hanukkah dates and candle-lighting guide has the upcoming dates in one place.
The quick version for 2026: the first night of Hanukkah starts at sundown on Friday, December 4. Because that is a Friday, the Hanukkah candle is lit before the Shabbat candles, as Chabad.org notes. The eighth and final candles are lit on Friday afternoon, December 11, again before Shabbat, and Hanukkah ends at nightfall on Saturday, December 12.
The calendar that sets that date is one of the oldest working systems our people carry. It has kept Passover in the spring and Hanukkah in the dark of winter across centuries of exile, in every country Jews have called home, including this one. The date on the American calendar moves. The 25th of Kislev never does.