The council of Nicaea is best known for the profession of faith - the ‘Nicene Creed' - which is still recited in most parishes every Sunday immediately after the sermon.

However, the council also issued twenty canons of a practical nature, dealing with various aspects of church life, and the fifth of these canons speaks of Lent.

The word used for Lent in this fifth canon is tessarakonta (in the original Greek), which means ‘forty'.

For the first time in recorded history, we have mention of this period of preparation for Easter as lasting forty days.

Much earlier, Christians had introduced Easter Sunday to celebrate Christ's resurrection. Soon afterwards, a period of two or three days preparation, specially commemorating Christ's passion and death - the ‘Holy Week' part of Lent today - had been adopted by various Christian communities.

But the first mention of a preparatory period lasting the forty days comes from this fifth canon of Nicaea. Continue reading.

Source: ThinkingFaith

Image: The Catholic Spirit

The convergence of these two holidays won't happen again for another 77,798 years, according to some calculations.

Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, is celebrated for eight days beginning at sundown on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. On the Hebrew calendar, the dates are 25 Kislev to 2 Tevet in the year 5774.

An eight-day celebration, Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E. during the Maccabean revolt against oppressive Greek rulers.

It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays and is celebrated by lighting a nine-branch candelabrum, commonly called a menorah.

(Technically, the candelabrum for Hanukkah is called a hanukkiah to distinguish itself from the seven-branch menorah used in the Temple and described in Exodus 25.)

The story of Hanukkah is one of revolution and miracles: Greek influence over the Jews in the Land of Israel had become an affront to Jewish culture and ritual.

Antiochus, the Greek ruler, forbade Jewish religious practice, so a small group of Jews, the Maccabees, revolted. These Jews eventually prevailed and, as a first order of business, restored the Holy Temple, which had been desecrated.

The menorah in the Temple needed to be re-lit because, according to tradition, it should burn continuously. The Temple liberators found one vial of olive oil, enough for one day of light.

Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days. Continue reading.

Source: Huffington Post

Image: npr.org