NEW Year - Jewish, explained and illustrated

 We just had the two days of The Jewish New Year. The story is in Leviticus 23.24. The Feast of Trumpets. The ram's horn is blown in the synagogue on New Year;s Day. (This takes a lot of puff.) 

In my greetings card box I found old greeting cards for Jewish festivities. Nowadays people send greetings through animated cards and whatsapp but the old printed cards reminded me from the pictures that features of the festival include eating honey and apples.

Looking out of my window in London I see apples on trees in back gardens. The Jewish new year is a lunar new year like the Asian, Chinese,  and Muslim new years. So is Sukkot, the upcoming harvest festival celebrated in Christian churches in England as well as the assembly of Christian Cof E (Church of England) state school, which Americans call public schools. 

School Year

Jewish New Year starting in autumn may seem odd, until you reflect that school and universities follow the same traditional timing.

I remember from living in the USA that in the UK public schools are what Americans call private schools.  What the Americans call public schools, are what we in the UK used to call Council schools because the County council funds them from council tax. 

Jewish New Year's Eve Dinner

The evening before in Hebrew is called Erev. Easy to remember. Eve for evening like New Year's Eve on Dec 31st, and Erev.

I was invited to a Jewish New Year evening dinner on the evening before the second day of Rosh Hashana. Like Christmas eve, Jewish holidays start the night before. (Friday night is the start of the sabbath, varying in time according to the time of darkness when you can see three stars. No need to squint at the sky. A Jewish diary or calendar or newspaper tells you what time the sabbath or festival starts.

Two Night and Two Day Festivals in the Diaspora

The diaspora is the dispersal. (The Irish and others also use the word diaspora, and living beyond the pale, meaning boundary.)

In the UK two nights are celebrated. That is because of the time difference. The UK is not the same time as Jerusalem and Israel, so to be sure to cover every hour of the holiday, two days are celebrated. In Israel, they only celebrate for one day. Often the mother or grandmother or oldest sister cooks and invites the family for the first day. Sometimes a sister or daughter will hold the festive meal at her home on the second day, often using leftover food, and table decorations, candle sticks, flowers, table naplins, plates, borrowing whatever is needed, or pretty, or appropriate. Most religious people celebrate on two days. Non religious people, friends, distant relatives might be invited on the second day. I was invited on the secnd day (night before the second day which this week, this year, was Tuesday night.

Here are some pretty pictures for your entertainment. 

Flower display. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

 Apple and head covering for a man. Paper napkin showing in gold foil the ram's horn. A plastic dipper for honey symbolising sweetness to spread on the apple. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

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Chollah bread. Honey in bowl. With one large wooden honey dipper. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Honey in bowl. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Chocolate wrapped in foil. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Kosher chocolate

It doesn't have to be kosher chocolate. Ideally parve, chocolate designated as vegan, which contains neither milk nor meat, and can be served with either kind of meal.

A milk chocolate could be served with a milk meal containing no meat or meat products, not chicken, only fish. 

The real harvest festival is coming up soon, Sukkot, when households and synagogues build a sukkah, tempeorary hut with a view of the sky, (resembling the booths for guardians of the harvest, built out in Indian fields), decorated with hanging fruit 

Useful Dates

Yom Kippur 2025 Evening of October 1st to sundown on October 2nd.

Sukkot

Evening of Monday 6th October to 1th October in 2025.

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