Shared faith celebrations take place across Wales as the first day of Hanukkah falls on the same day as Christmas.

Hanukkah – Hanukkah in Hebrew – is celebrated for eight days in November or December each year, with the dates changing based on the lunar calendar followed by the Jewish population.

This year, the traditional lighting of the Chanukia, a nine-stemmed candlestick, begins after dark on December 25th and ends on January 2nd.

Hanukkah last fell on the same day as Christmas in 2005 and has only occurred four times in the past century.

For 11-year-old Beti, from Cardiff, it is the first time she has celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas on the same day.

“I find it very exciting because my friends are not Jewish but they all celebrate Christmas,” she said.

“This year we can relate to more things because it’s simultaneous.”

During Hanukkah, families often come together and give each other chocolate or Hanukkah money called gelt. Some families give children a small gift on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah.

Beti grew up in a multi-religious family and Hanukkah is one of her favorite holidays.

She also goes to church with her father’s relatives and enjoys “seeing both worlds and experiencing both.”

“We love getting together as a family, celebrating, playing games and eating all the food.”

“Traditionally you’re supposed to eat oily foods to remember the oil, so we have donuts and latkas – similar to hash browns – but I would say tastier.”

• Hanukkah – dedication in Hebrew – is the Jewish festival of lights
• It celebrates a miracle they believe occurred in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago, when a group of Jews called the Maccabees won a three-year war against the Greek emperor Antiochus, who banned them from worshiping God
• When the Jews returned to their temple, they saw that it had almost been destroyed, but they found a lamp and relit it to rededicate the temple to God
• The one small jar of oil lasted only one day but stayed lit for eight days, which is why Jews light a candle each day of Hanukkah
• The Hanukiah symbolizes how God took care of the Jewish people during a difficult time

Author and artist Rebecca Wilson, who grew up in Gwynedd with a Jewish mother and Christian father, celebrates Hanukkah and Christmas.

As a child, she went to church with her family and then turned to Jewish traditions at home, adding that her parents always “accepted each other.”

“That will happen this year. We’re going to eat a Christmas turkey and then light Hanukkah candles.”

Aside from the delicious food and family fun, Rebecca said her celebrations were an opportunity to pray for the “miracle of peace, hope and light in a dark time.”

She hopes people learn more about the lunar calendar and the changing dates of Hanukkah since Christmas and Hanukkah fall at the same time.

“It’s rare,” explains Norma Glass, a member of Swansea’s Jewish community.

“This year Christmas Day magically arrives, so it’s nice that both Christians and Jews can celebrate miracles that have happened in their respective histories together.”

For Norma, it is an opportunity to bring communities together and achieve a better understanding of each other.

“As a child, people would always ask me, ‘What do you have for Christmas?’ But of course I didn’t have Christmas, so I always told a little lie and told them what I wanted for my birthday.

This year, however, she said it is an opportunity for everyone to share what they hope for together and to discover the commonalities in religions and share “the gift of light in the darkness.”