HIUSS GM

Ever wondered why jelly donuts, or sufganiyot, are traditionally served at Hanukkah? Mason explains that fried foods, like donuts, recall the original Hanukkah miracle of the oil burning for eight days.

Some Jewish holidays, like Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, can only fall on certain days of the week to avoid coinciding with the sabbath, Shabbat. However, Hanukkah has fewer limitations, and can begin on any day of the week except for Tuesday, according to Chabad. That's due to the fact that the month before Kislev, Cheshvan, can have either 29 or 30 days.

While you'll find Christmas and other religious holidays on fixed dates on the Gregorian calendar, Hanukkah moves around from year to year. That's because the holiday begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar—which doesn't completely line up with the Gregorian one—thus accounting for the holiday jumping from date to date in the fall and winter.

While gifts are frequently exchanged on Hanukkah, Rabbi Dave Mason, author of The Age of Prophecy, says that doing so is actually a relatively modern practice.

Christmas isn't the only winter holiday astronauts have brought with them to space. In 1993, while aboard the space shuttle Endeavor, astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman brought a menorah (the Hanukkah candle holder) and a dreidel (the holiday's top), which he played on a televised broadcast in celebration of Hanukkah. Hoffman—NASA's first Jewish-American astronaut—also made history in 1985 when he brought a Torah (the Jewish holy book) into space for the first time.

Some Jewish holidays, like Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, can only fall on certain days of the week to avoid coinciding with the sabbath, Shabbat. However, Hanukkah has fewer limitations, and can begin on any day of the week except for Tuesday, according to Chabad. That's due to the fact that the month before Kislev, Cheshvan, can have either 29 or 30 day