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Happy New Year - Rosh Hasanah - שָׁנָה טוֹבָה

Posted: September 18, 2009 at 10:50 am | Tags: Jewish New Year, Jewish New Year 5770, round challah, Shofar

Happy New Year!!!!

Ok so I haven’t completely lost the plot or skipped over a few months and Christmas. Tonight is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah written in Hebrew as ראש השנה literally translates as Head of the Year.

I am not the most religious person by any means however I do celebrate the big festivals: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Chanukah, and Pesach (Passover).  Like all Jewish holidays, they start at night fall the day before the date reason being Jewish days start from nightfall until the following sunset or when three medium sized stars appear in the sky.

Each festival has its own traditions, but as usual,  we sit down to a big family meal on Rosh Hashanah.

The table is set and along with the traditional wine, there is two round challahs (round twists of bread) to usher in a year of good judgements and to represent the circle of life and the circle of the year.

The meal begins with apple dipped in honey to symbolise a sweet new year. Prayers are said and the rest of the meal is pretty standard

On the both mornings of the festival you’re meant to go to synagogue however one morning will be enough for me!

Another major part of Rosh Hashanah is the Shofar: a horn made out of a  ram’s horn, it has three different notes tekiya, shevarim, teruah and these are blown as part of the service in the synagogue unless however the festival falls on Shabbat as it does this year which will mean that the Shofar will only be blown on the second day which is Sunday. It is considered a great mitzvah (good deed) to hear the Shofar being blown.

The other time the Shofar is blown is to symbolise the end of Yom Kippur but (if you’re interested) I’ll cover that in a few weeks when it’s on.

As I was explaining to work colleagues today, the finial digit of the year always corresponds with the upcoming year in the Christian calendar, so we are entering the year 5770.

I have actually taken the day off work today so I can help Mummy K prepare for the meal tonight better get going…

I know this isn’t my usual subject to write about but my religion is a pretty big party of my life and I decided to share it, hope you enjoyed reading it.

Mwah