Holy Day Celebrations

• Rosh Hashanah: the Jewish new year

  • Celebrate God creating the world

  • Shofar: ram’s horn

  • 10-day period of reflection

  • Celebrate with family and friends

  • Observed during the fall

  • Honey and apples are traditional foods (sweetness/goodness of God, world, and creation)

• Yom Kippur: holiest day of Judaism, centers on atonement for sins and mistakes

  • Prayers of forgiveness

  • Fast from food and drink (including water)

  • No work

  • Repent from sins

  • Long services in synagogue

• Passover: celebrates Israelites’ escape from Egypt

  • Told by God to celebrate in the Torah

  • Seder meal

  • Haggadah: text recited at Seder during passover

Significant Life Milestones

• Birth and naming

  • Name is consecrated

  • Boys are circumcised on the 8th day following birth (as instructed in Torah)

• Bar and Bat Mitzvahs

  • Coming of age ritual

  • Signifies children becoming adults in the community (age 13)

  • “Son” (Bar) or “Daughter” (Bat) of the Covenant

• Marriage

  • Huppah: bridal canopy; sacred place

    • Representing Adam and Eve, return to the Garden of Eden

    • Say vows and blessings beneath the Huppah

  • Seven blessings over a cup of wine

    • Break the glass—symbolizes happiness and sorrow, support as a couple

• Death and mourning

  • 5 stages

    • 1st day (day of death): rip part of clothing to express sorrow, acknowledge that God is Lord of all

      • Men don’t shave

      • Refrain from wearing leather (made from dead animals; no more death)

      • Body is prepared and placed in a wooden coffin

    • Public mourning

      • Recite Kaddish prayer

      • People visit family, bring food

      • Only supposed to say good things about the person who passed

    • 7 days following burial

      • Continued public mourning

    • 30 days after burial

      • Avoid public celebrations and social gatherings

    • The First Year

      • Full-year mourning for children of the deceased

  • Jewish gravestones are denoted with the star of David

    • Place stones rather than flowers (stones last longer, and you don’t have to kill something that is living to celebrate someone who has passed)

  • Kaddish: a prayer of mourning