Rituals and Ceremonies

Rosh Hashanah

• The start of ten days of repentance, or teshuvah, which culminates on Yom Kippur, is the Jewish New Year. Traditionally, the holiday is marked by eating sweet or round delicacies like apples and honey and by blowing the shofar, a ram's horn that has been hollowed out, during religious rituals. Happy New Year, or "shana tovah," is the traditional greeting.

Yom Kippur 

• The Day of Atonement is a solemn day set aside for repentance, prayer, and fasting. On this day of awe, observant Jews refrain from eating, drinking, bathing, engaging in sexual activity, and wearing anything made of leather.

Shavuot

• The Weeks Festival commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

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Sukkot 

• Sukkot, also known as the "Feast of Tabernacles," is a seven-day harvest holiday that honors the Israelites' 40-year stay in the Sinai wilderness, during which time they lived in temporary booths (sukkot in Hebrew). Many families construct their own sukkah, where it is traditional to eat meals, sleep, and shake the etrog, a type of citrus, and the lulav, a palm frond bound together with myrtle and willow branches.

Shemini Atzeret

• Although Shemini Atzeret (also known as the "Eighth Day of Assembly") is a separate holiday, it actually marks the end of Sukkot. On this day, the Torah's final chapter is read. Jews who observe yom tov refrain from working or traveling on this "holy day."

Passover of Pesach (Hebrew)

• The Pesach feast, which lasts a whole week, honors the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt. On the first two nights, an elaborate and ritualized meal known as the Passover Seder tells the Exodus story through ritual foods, prayers, stories, and songs. There are limits on employment and travel for just the first two and last two days of Passover, which are commemorated as full holy days. Jewish pupils may miss the entire week of school, though, as many extended Jewish families get together for the vacation. Schools are always closed for Passover in Israel.

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Simchat Torah

• The joyful holiday of Simchat Torah, also known as the "rejoicing of the Law," immediately follows Shemini Atzeret and is marked by dancing with Torah scrolls and singing hakafot, songs of adoration and thanksgiving.

Hanukkah

• Hanukkah, often known as the "Festival of Lights," is an eight-day celebration that honors the Maccabees' miraculous victory and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Christmas is not the Jewish version of Hanukkah. Despite the fact that many Jewish families and communities gather to celebrate, it is actually a relatively small Jewish holiday (religiously speaking) that has no limitations whatsoever on employment or travel. Fried meals like potato latkes and jelly doughnuts are commonplace.

Purim

• This celebration, which resembles a carnival, honors the failure of a scheme to exterminate the Jews of Persia. In addition to dressing up in costumes (akin to Halloween or Mardi Gras), it is common to offer food gifts to friends and the less fortunate, especially hamantashen, triangle-shaped pastries filled with fruit or poppy seeds.

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