Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, like all days in the Jewish calendar, starts at dusk the night before and lasts until nightfall on the day itself.
The Jews use a lunar calendar – based on the cycles of the moon – so each month is exactly 28 days long. To keep the calendar in synch with the seasons, a whole month is added on leap years. The years are dated from when, according to the Bible, the universe was created: this Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of 5768.
A new start
According to Jewish religious belief, New Year, and the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, which follows it 10 days later, are the time when the fate of the world is sealed for the following year. The righteous will be rewarded for their good deeds and the wicked will be punished.
The 10 days between the two festivals are a last chance for people to show that they have repented for anything they have done wrong and to ask for divine forgiveness. A very ancient ritual is Tashlikh in which orthodox Jews go to a river or the sea and symbolically cast away their sins.
Biblical traditions
Rosh Hashanah is the second most solemn day of the Jewish year (the first is Yom Kippur). Many Jews who don't go to synagogue at any other time of the year, do attend on Rosh Hashanah. In synagogue one of the rituals is the blowing of the shofar – a ram's horn – which is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. The shofars used in the synagogue today are identical to those of biblical times.
At home, people eat apples dipped in honey in the hope of a sweet year to come. Religious Jews recite this prayer before they eat it: 'May it please the Lord our God and God of our fathers to renew for us a good and sweet year.'
Happy New Year! Shanah Tovah!
