Fasting and Feasting and Festivals

The feasting for Jewish New Year in the autumn is celebrated with the autumn apples and sweet honey and honey cakes.

The card below has a honey cakes recipe.

Greetings cards for Jewish New Year showing honey. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The Happy new year greeting is shanah tovah, literally, Year good.

The next major calendar date is the Day of Atonement, involving a fast.

Yom Kippur - Jewish Day of Atonement

The word Yom means day in Hebrew. Adjectives follow nouns in Hebrew. 

Yom Kippur, the day of the annual fast, which comes a week after celebrating the Jewish New Year. It begins on Wednesday October 1, 2025 at sundown; ends at nightfall on Thursday October 2, 2025. 

Who is fasting and why? It is in the Hebrew bible, which Christians called the Old Testament when they selected books for the New Testament about the year 300 AD. The early mention of the Day of Atonement which is taken as the instruction is in the biblical book of Leviticus (which is the Greek word for laws).

Who is expected to fast? 

Boys from the age of 13, girls from the age of 12. 

Who is exampt from fasting

Anybody who needs water or food for medical reasons. For example, water to drink with pills or food to go with antibiotics, or food eaten at intervals because of diabetes. Or anybody with an illness such as pnemonia. If in doubt you can ask a doctor or rabbi if you are exampted.

Children under the age of nine are not expected to fast. Between 9 and 12 or 13 they can be introduced to the idea.

Non Jews are not expected to fast.

Both Jews and Muslims vary in their attitudes. Officially there is not rule about not eating in front of fasting Jews. However, you might feel more comfortable eating elsewhere.

Some Jews and Muslims have said they have no trouble not eating when others are eating. Just as I have no trouble not eating shellfish, to which I am allergic, when watching others eating it. I am not tmpted. It is not for me. 

If you are busy praying or busy doing anything, you may forget hunger. Or your body is instructed by your subconscious that mealtime has passed and wait until the next offer of food appears.

Feasting

At the end of the fast, even the simplest meal may seem like a feast.

Moon cakes

Over in China, Singapore, and all over the web, are pictures of moon cakes for the Autumn Festival. I dream of mooncakes.

Traditional cake with pastry crust, sweet solid filling offset by boiled egg

Mooncake Photos from Pixabay. Captions by Angela Lansbury.

Festival & Feast Plans

Autumn Festivals and Autumn time. September, October, November, December. What's to look forward to?

Hanukah and Christmas. 

Christmas & Kosher Xmas

December 25th, but also the 26th for Boxing Day in the UK. Restaurants all December and January. In the UK and USA, provided by the company, you used to get kosher turkey and kosher plum pudding.

Hanukah Dec 14-22nd 2025.

In January you can buy a diary in England, Singapore, or the USA, with festival dates for the UK, and/or Jewish festivals. Calendars may mark the local festivals, eg Asian/ and oriental dates.

Calendars, Clubs, Diaries

If you are running a club an planning your ear's events and holiday dates, you might like them in. Add the feast days for club parites. Note the feast and fast dates when your committee, or members, or visitors are likely to be absent or on holiday.

Passover

Passover, which Jesus celebrated, as depicted in paintings of the Last Supper,  is another 'movable feast' which falls around Easter time.

Useful Websites

Autumn/Chinese/Moon Festival

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/mid-autumn-moon-festival-traditions#:~:text=In%202025%2C%20the%20Mid%2DAutumn,traditions%20marking%20the%20ancient%20holiday.

Jewish

https://orsl.usc.edu/life/jewish-holy-days-

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/event/hanukkah-usa-2025#:~:text=When%20Is%20Hanukkah%202025%3F,and%20end%20on%20December%2022.calendar/#:~:text=Sukkot%20%E2%80%93%20Jewish&text=Begins%20October%206%2C%202025%20at,nightfall%20on%20October%2013%2C%202025.

Moslem Greeting Eid Mubarak - how do you reply?

Problem
Cards and greetings, from family, friends, strangers, businesses, people overseas - I received a Muslim greeting on what's ap, a picture with Arabic writing and the words in Roman script:
EID MUBARAK.

I am sure this person didn't send me a greeting last year. Maybe that's when they were overseas and could not use phones which work with the UK, or maybe they just joined Whats Ap, or maybe they sent to everybody they knew, and accidentally included me on the list

Regardless of their motivation, how do I reply.

My first thought was to reply in English, briefly: Many thanks, and all good wishes to you and your family.

Somebody else said, you don't have always have to reply. Then, as if in answer to my question, up pops the answer on the internet.

WHICH FESTIVAL?
Moslem Festivals
Firstly, I thought Eid meant any kind of celebration or holiday. Then I thought, it's only the big two, one of which is Ramadan. Ramadan is the whole month of fasting during the day, eating after sunset and before dawn. Ending with a big feast and lots of outdoor food stalls in Little India in Singapore and many more in the Malay area.

(If you are in Malaysia during Ramadan, the food shops and restaurants will be shut during Ramadan However, in the suburbs you will see Chinese restaurants with Chinese writing or orange lanterns serving food.

Then I read about the festival being connected with the sacrifice of firstborn son Isaac by Abraham, the death being averted by the signal from God when an animal ran forward to be sacrificed instead.

Jewish New Year
I had attended Jewish New Year several times, and eventually discovered that the reason the story was so familiar was that the entire bible is read through the year, started again with the first story about the averted sacrifice of the son each Jewish New Year's Day.

So if you only attended synagogue for the Jewish New Year, every year you would hear the same story (in English as well as Hebrew at the Liberal Synagogues in London, England).

Ramadan and Jewish New Year are the same time of year, following the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar.

Christianity and Sacrifice
Christianity, with the sacrifice of God's son, Jesus, recalls the earlier biblical story.)

The Greeting
EID MUBARAK

Two possible replies:
KHAIR MUBARAK

This sounds balanced.

JAZAK ALLAH KHAIR is an extra word, and can be translated as
May Allah reward you with goodness.

That sounds more formal. Should I act like the Chinese and Asian system that you must give back more than you received?

Am I using the right language, if it's Arabic? I thought, if that's Arabic, some Muslims are not Arabic and don't speak Arabic. But if I have received a greeting in Arabic, I should reply in Arabic, unless the greeting is more or less the same in all Arabic speaking countries, but the reply is in various languages and dialects.

As the hours went by and other events interrupted, I worried that if I spent too long on research, I would be too late to catch the event and out of politeness I should reply within 24 hours.

In 2017 the Eid ul Adha lasts until Tuesday September 5th 2017.

Tips
https://www.quora.com/When-is-the-best-time-to-wish-Eid-Mubarak-to-Pakistani-friends
https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-respond-to-Eid-Mubarak
http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/25/eid-mubarak-how-to-wish-someone-a-happy-eid-in-11-different-languages-6721865/
https://www.slideshare.net/AbdulaiAbarika/eid-cards-sms-and-images
http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/10/five-places-to-eat-in-london-this-eid-al-fitr-6700005/
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/16511473/Happy-Eid-Everyone-Here-s-How-To-Greet-Muslims-in-Eid

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.

Tips on translating with Google and other sites

Problem
You copy from Google translate and the text breaks into half lines or disappears and floats. What did you do wrong? How can you stop this happening?

Answers

You can copy the translations from google. The text comes out large. So you have to make each word smaller. It would be faster to copy several as a list, then make them all smaller.

If you copy the text which runs over two lines, the text you copy has embedded the same line break. So you have to type out the words and copy only any letter with an accent.

Translation Checks
Google offers you alternative translations for words which can be translated several ways according to context.

If you print out several phrases from your automatic translator, you can show them to somebody who is bilingual on the plane to your destination and ask them if the translation is correct. If you have a long list and they are busy, get them to check just one sentence. If you ask the same person a couple of times, and find two or three people, you can work your way down your page without causing too much trouble nor getting told they don't have time. If you are lucky, they will come back to you later when they have time.

I have several more posts on learning languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, teacher of English and other languages. I can teach in person and on Skype.

McDonald's Chicken Or KFC?

Wonderful that I can now eat my favourite food, chicken, and without that bun.
   What's the chicken like at these two world famous chains? Frankly, I could not see or taste much difference. First two members of my family tried the drive-in 24 hour McDonald's in the Edgware Road.

McDonalds
   The pluses were:
1 24 hours - food guaranteed and time
2  The new super-fast system - stop at the first post to read the menu and choose by calling your order into the machine, then drive on and insert your payment, then drive on to collect your order.
3 You can pull into a car parking space and eat it there and then without risk of spilling food on clothes or car or distracting driver from driving.
4 I opted for chicken, 3 pieces, and got three pieces which felt like proper chicken, not mangled meat.
5 Sliced fruit option for afters takes off the unhealthy feeling.
     Apple slices and grapes in March 2014. Excellent.

Improve Please
   What could be improved? The batter on the outside is over-cooked. I admit it's pleasantly crunchy, and dry enough not to make a mess like greasy chip-shop batter. But I felt I was eating a coating of breakfast cereal cornflakes.
   Not a vegetable or even a garnish in sight.
   And what - no free toy? What happened to the McDonalds we patronised for a decade?
   
KFC
   The next day for a a change we tried KFC. If you like the old system where you speak to a girl in a window, I suppose its friendlier. And not that much slower. Maybe it just seems slower because you are stuck in one place chatting and waiting, rather than accelerating off to the next area for the next part of the transaction.
   The chicken seemed almost identical. Maybe just a touch moister. The crunch, crunch coating was almost the same as the previous day.
   We were outside their parking zone barrier but it was late at night so we were able to park in the street alongside.
   I'm a gourmet and a healthy eater. yes, I'd rather have a whole roast chicken from Morrison, a mixed salad from their salad bar with grated carrots and half a dozen sides, and a Marks and Spencer fresh fruit salad. But sometimes you need a fast food drive-in.
 
BURGER KING - Memories
  Burger King used to give me burgers with lots of vegetable stuff packed into the bun.

McD & KFC
   But now I've found chicken in two major chains I'm really happy. When you're hungry in a hurry, late at night, both McD and KFC are good enough for me.

TIPS
   Tips - ambiguous word. There no tipping needed, unlike restaurants. What I mean by tips is suggestions.

My tips/suggestions:
1 Have cash ready to pay.
2 If you're wearing a plastic-backed water and grease proof apron from doing cleaning or housework or house removals, keep the apron on. It protects your clothes when eating in the car.
3 Modify that unhealthy food by having a portion of fruit. (Or buy grapes earlier in the day and take grapes in the car.)
4 A plastic bag in the car takes the mess.

Update - check ingredients
   Somebody in the sauna warned me that companies can't say chicken when describing their nuggets and other food unless there is a minimum quantity of chicken.
   If you are a health freak and want whole chicken, you might feel better off with chicken legs from a supermarket which have bones in the middle.
   If you are eating out regularly, twice a day, you might want to check your fast food calories count and the ingredients.
   However, if you are looking for a place open at odd hours, not too bothered about what you are eating as it's a one-off not more than once a week, you in a tearing hurry, nobody else with you could care less about health scares and ingredients, and don't even want to get out of your car, this is a good option.

McDonald's, 157 Colindeep Lane, Colindale NW9 6DB. Tel 020 8205 4140
email: 00256@uk.mcd.com
www.mcdonalds.co.uk
KFC, The Hyde, Edgware road, Colindale, London Tel:0208 201 3010. Drive-thru.
www.YourKFC.co.uk (survey by KFC)