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True or false? During the Jewish Feast of Lights special candelabra with nine branches are used.
What’s that sound? Someone is blowing an animal’s horn - a shofar. It’s time to celebrate the Jewish New Year. The Jewish year doesn’t follow the same calendar as most of the western world - the Gregorian calendar. So the months in the Jewish year move back and forth when you compare the two calendars.
The Jewish year starts with the New Year celebration, Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana is celebrated during the Jewish month Tishri, which falls in September or October in the Gregorian calendar. According to Jewish tradition God created the world on this day in the year 3761 BCE. So that is something to celebrate. Sweet breads with honey, sweet fruits, pastry, and candy are eaten.
These foods symbolise the wish for a sweet and happy New Year. According to tradition the shofar-horns are blown on the New Year Celebration to awaken people to reflection. It’s said that during Rosh Hashana God judges how people have behaved during the past year, and decides what is going to happen during the year to come. If you’ve done something stupid during the year, now you have ten days to resolve this in front of God. Because ten days after Rosh Hashana, it’s time for the next celebration.
The Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur. This is the most important and serious day for believing Jews. They are not allowed to eat anything all day - they fast - while they review their mistakes - their sins - and seek reconciliation - atonement - with God. You might have seen a seven branched candelabra like this - it’s a common symbol for Judaism - a menorah. In November or December in Jewish homes you may also see a nine branched menorah.
Now it’s time to celebrate the Feast of Lights - Hanukkah and this is a special Hanukkah candelabra. The middle candle is used to light all the other candles, one at a time over eight days. During Hanukkah children are also given gifts. Hanukkah is celebrated in remembrance of the time when the Jewish temple in Jerusalem - which had been taken over by another people - the Seleucids - was retaken and reconsecrated by the Jews in the year 164 BCE. The Jewish easter - Pesach - is most often celebrated in April - in remembrance of the night when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, where they had lived as slaves under Pharaoh.
According to the Bible an angel of death killed the oldest son in every Egyptian home, to make Pharaoh release the slaves. But the angel passed over the Jewish homes. Pesach means passing over. The day after Pesach is called the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Because you eat unleavened bread to remember that there was no time for the bread to rise on the night that the Israelites finally were allowed to leave Eqypt.
Other things are also eaten in remembrance of the suffering in Egypt. When Moses rescued the Israelites from Egypt it took them about fifty days to reach Sinai, where the Bible says that God gave the commandments to Moses, as well as the contents of the Torah. So fifty days after easter it’s time to celebrate once more. This is the Feast of Weeks: Shavuot. When Moses received the commandments from God, according to the Bible, the Israelites started their forty year long journey through the desert.
A time during which they lived in simple huts. And it’s in remembrance of this that the last celebration of the Jewish year occurs - the Feast of Tabernacles – Sukkot. During this feast huts are built in the garden if you have one. The huts should preferably have walls strong enough to withstand wind - a symbol for the protection given by God. But the roof should be made of leaves or something else that lets in some rain and sunshine.
Those were the most important of the Jewish Holy days. And soon it’s another New Year.