Rosh Hashanah

This is the Jewish New Year celebration. It takes place on the first day of Tishrei, which is the first month of the civil year (although the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year) and is said to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve.

One of the customs of this celebration is eating apples dipped in honey to symbolise the wish for a sweet New Year. Another is the founding of a horn (known as a shofar) which is a call to repentance in remembrance of mankind’s first sin. The horn is sounded 100 times over the 2 day festival unless the first day falls on Shabbat.

No work is allowed on this day and Jews spend much of the time in the synagogue. Rosh Hashanah is a time for self-reflection, for asking forgiveness for wrong-doings, and for planning to be better in the coming year.

Related posts: Sukkot    Yom Kippur

Y is for Yiddish

Yiddish is a Germanic language, but it has influences from Hebrew and (to a lesser extent) some Slavic languages, and it is written using the Hebrew alphabet.

100 years ago Yiddish was spoken by approximately 18 million people. It began to decline as Jewish people dropped their language in an effort to be seen to integrate more with their neighbours. After the Holocaust, the language almost disappeared completely and there are now only around three million speakers. It is listed on the UNESCO endangered languages list as “definitely endangered”. The language is, however, experiencing a revival.

Related posts: X is for Xhosa   Z is for…

Hanukkah

Hanukkah is sometimes also written as Chanukkah, and both spellings are equally acceptable. This is because the word is actually pronounced with a soft ch sound, like in the Scottish word loch which is a sound that doesn’t exist in English.

The festival begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev and last for 8 days. This year that will be from 24th December to 1st January.

It is called the Festival of Dedication (hanukkah means dedication in Hebrew) or the Festival of Light, and is to commemorate the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

About 2500 years ago the land had been taken over by the Syrian-Greeks. The King, Antiochus, wanted the Jewish people to worship the Greek gods. The Jewish temple was desecrated and a statue of Antiochus was placed inside.

Against all the odds, a small group of Jews defeated the Greek army and reclaimed the temple. They cleaned it up and reconsecrated it, but they only found one jar of sacred oil, which was only enough to keep a flame burning for one day. Miraculously the flame remained burning for 8 days, which was long enough to prepare more of the oil to keep it burning.

At Hanukkah now Jews celebrate this miracle by lighting 8 candles on a special menorah, called a hanukkiyah, which has nine branches – one for an attendant flame and eight to represent the eight days during which the one jar of oil continued burning. One candle is lit on the first day, two on the 2nd and so on until all eight candles are lit on the final day.

The celebrations include spending time with family, eating foods which have been fried in oil (such as potato pancakes and doughnuts) and exchanging gifts.

Related posts: Sukkot   Yom Kippur