The Jewish Holidays
To learn about the major Jewish holidays,
click on any of the links below to view a brief synopsis.
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Holiday |
5769 |
5770 |
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2008-09 |
2009-10 |
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Sep 29-30 |
Sept. 8-9 |
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Oct 8-9 |
Sept. 17-18 |
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Oct 14 |
Sep 24 |
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Oct. 22 |
Oct 1 |
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Dec 22-29 |
Dec 2-9 |
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Feb 9 |
Jan 20 |
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Mar 10 |
Mar 21 |
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Apr 9-16 |
Apr 19-26 |
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April 21 |
May 1 |
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April 29 |
May 9 |
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Lag BaOmer |
May 13 |
May 22 |
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May 29 |
June 8 |
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Tishah B’Av |
Jul 30 |
Aug 9 |
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year,
and it usually falls in September or October. While it is a celebratory
holiday, it is also a time for reflection on one's life, the previous year and
the goals for the New Year, as well as a time to renew bonds with friends and
family. There are several traditions and
symbols associated with Rosh Hashanah, such as eating a round challah (bread) to symbolize the continuity of life,
dipping challah or apples in honey (to represent a
sweet year), and the blowing of the Shofar—Ram’s
horn.
Yom Kippur falls on the 10th day of
Tishri, and its literal translation means "Day of Atonement." It
occurs 10 days after Rosh Hashanah. It
is a serious holiday (the most somber of all Jewish holidays) during which Jews
fast from sunset to sunset in order to concentrate on the task at hand:
reflecting, repenting, and praying that one will be included in the book of
life for another year.
Sukkot is the
"Festival of Booths," and it lasts for seven days, from the 15th to
the 21st of Tishri. It is a holiday of rejoicing and celebration of the
harvest. People celebrate by building a sukkah; a
temporary structure built outdoors with a minimum of three walls. It is
decorated with greenery, vegetables, fruits, plants and palms, and for the
seven days of the holiday it is the place where meals are eaten, and some even
sleep in their sukkah! Those who build a sukkah open them up to friends and family in order to share
the festivities. The Sukkah is also supposed to be a
reminder of the way the Jewish people wandered in the desert.
There are three mitzvot—commandments--associated
with this holiday. They are 1) dwelling in the sukkah,
2) gathering together the four species, and 3) rejoicing during the holiday.
The second commandment above refers to the four species. The four species are four types of plants
that are part of the harvest. They are the etrog (a
citron), lulav (palm branch), hadas
(myrtle), and arava (willow). The last three are
woven together and shaken in six directions (north, south, east, west, up &
down) as a reminder that God is all around us. The last mitzvah is easy: of
course there should be great rejoicing during this holiday!
Simchat Torah is
attached to the end of Sukkot, but it is considered
its own holiday. It commemorates the fact that the annual cycle of reading the
Torah—The Five Books of Moses--is completed and begun again. Simchat Torah is celebrated with lots of dancing, including
dancing with the Torah scrolls in hand. In fact, this is a symbol of the
renewed connection between the Torah and the Jewish people, as well as a time
for Jews to get reacquainted with their heritage.
Hanukkah falls in late November or
December and lasts for eight days. This holiday commemorates the struggle for
religious freedom from the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes
that occurred in 167 BCE. As the story
goes, King Antiochus forced everyone in his kingdom to accept Greek customs and
religion. Many Jews protested and continued to practice Judaism. The Greeks
eventually took over the
Tu B'Shvat is an agricultural holiday for it celebrates the
earth and the beginning of the harvest cycle. It is also known as, “The
birthday of the trees.” It falls on the
15th day of Shvat which usually occurs in January. Tu B'Shvat is celebrated by
eating seven types of plants: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates,
olives, and date honey. People in
Purim falls on the fourteenth day of
Adar (sometime in either February or March). It is a fun and festive holiday
that is based on events from the biblical Book of Esther. The story goes that
King Ahasuerus chose Esther to be his new queen, not
aware of the fact that she was a Jew. Meanwhile, Haman, one of the King's
advisors, proclaimed that all people of the kingdom were to bow down to him.
Esther's protector, Mordechai, refused to bow down to
Haman, and in anger Haman condemned all Jews to death by drawing lots to
determine the date of their execution. Esther finally revealed her true
identity and Haman's nasty plot to the king.
The King, appalled at what his advisor had done, ordered Haman to be
killed.
Purim means "to draw lots” like
the lots that Haman drew to determine when the Jews would perish. When we
celebrate Purim in the synagogue, each time Haman's name is mentioned, people
jeer and shout and use noisemakers (groggers) in
order to drown out his name. We also eat Hamentaschen,
a triangular-shaped fruit-filled pastry that represents the triangular hats
that Haman supposedly wore. It is also part of the celebration to read the Megillah, the Book of Esther.
Pesach literally means, "to pass
over." In order for the Jews to escape slavery from the Egyptians, God
cast 10 plagues upon the Egyptians when they refused to stop enslaving the
Jews. The last plague was the death of the first born, and because God passed
over the houses of the Jews and spared their first born, the holiday came to be
known as Pesach, for God passed over and spared the Jews.
Pesach falls on the 15th day of Nissan
and lasts for eight days. A Seder (ordered dinner) is held on the first two
nights during which the Haggadah (a special prayer
book for this holiday) is read. Haggadah means,
"to tell," and we tell the story of Passover through this special
book.
In observance of the holiday, Jews do
not eat any leavened products, such as bread. Instead we eat matzah which is unleavened bread similar to that which the
Jews ate after escaping from
Shavuot occurs seven weeks after
Passover on the 6th day of the month of Sivan. This holiday commemorates the
giving of the Torah to the Jewish people by God. It is a celebratory holiday
where Jews reaffirm and renew their commitment to Judaism.
This is the "Day of
Remembrance" of the Holocaust, and it falls on the 27th day of Nissan. It
is actually a secular holiday that was instituted by the Israeli Knesset. Many
of the rituals are still in formation. It is commemorated on the day that the
Warsaw Ghetto uprising began in 1943.
This is the Israeli Independence Day
(Israel was declared a state on May 14, 1948), and it occurs on the 5th day of Iyyar. Traditionally, the celebration starts off on a
somber note in order to remember all those who lost their lives in pursuit of
freedom and for the State of Israel. Later on it takes on a festive and happy
flair with singing, candle lighting and dancing.
Information gathered from:
Fox, Rabbi Karen L., & Miller,
Phyllis Zimbler. Season for Celebration: A
Contemporary Guide to the Joys, Practices, and Traditions of the Jewish
Holidays.
Strassfeld, Michael. The
Jewish Holidays: A Guide & Commentary.
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