Castle's Chessboard

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year) begins this week. In honor of the holiday I'll share some Rosh Hashanah trivia:

1) The Timing - Most Jewish Holidays follow the Lunar calendar so the date of Rosh Hashanah changes every year. Rosh Hashanah itself falls on the new moon. This year the holiday falls relatively late in the year towards the end of September. Other times it usually falls at the beginning of the month. Similar to Christmas Eve... Jewish holidays begin at sunset the night before the actual holiday.

2) Two Days - Rosh Hashanah is observed on two consecutive days. The reason for this is historically observers had trouble determining when the New Moon would fall. To make sure that the holiday was celebrated during the correct time (when the new moon was present), the holiday was observed twice to cover the period of time they where not sure of. The tradition of celebrating the holiday twice continued even when people were able to better determine when the new moon would occur.

3) Shofar Blowing - Rosh Hashanah is a religious holiday so most Jews attend Synagogue (the equivalent of church) for prayer services. One of the big parts of the prayer ceremonies for Rosh Hashanah involves Shofar Blowing. The Shofar is a Ram's horn which is able to produce noise when it is blown.

There are 3 types of Shofar sounds:
Tekiah - A long uninterrupted sound
Shevarim - 3 Medium staccato like noises.
T’ruah - 9 or more short staccato noises.

Over the course of a Rosh Hashanah service the Shofar is usually sounded 100 times.

4) The 10 Days of repentance - Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a period known as the 10 days of repentance. During that time Jewish people reflect on sins and mistakes of the past year. This period concludes with another Jewish Holiday Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). I will try cover Yom Kippur in my next entry.

5) Taslich - Keeping with the repentance theme. One of the customs to perform on the first day of Rosh Hashanah is Taslich. This ceremony involves throwing bread crumbs or into a body of water. It is seen as a purifying ritual with bread symbolizing sins being cast away and water being used to cleanse it.

5) Apples and Honey - A popular Rosh Hashanah food is Apples dipped in Honey. It is supposed to be good luck with the honey representing sweetness. The action of dipping the apples honey symbolizes creating a sweet year.

Happy Rosh Hashanah Everyone!!