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The annual passage of time in the Jewish calendar is marked by a wide variety of holiday and festival observances and celebrations. Some take place mostly in synagogue, others primarily in the home - once again, with family, friends and food! Many of these holy days commemorate key events in the ancient history of the Jews. They are a way for the current day community to connect with the heritage of their past and continue to make it their own. The Jewish calendar follows a lunar cycle with Hebrew months being 29 or 30 days long. As such, this calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar in common use. Thus the Jewish holidays fall at different times each year, but within several weeks and always within the proper season. Every two or three years the Hebrew calendar adds a leap month so as to maintain the fall harvest holiday (Sukkot) in the fall and the spring harvest holidays (Passover and Shavuot) in the spring. In addition, just as the Sabbath begins in the evening, so do all Jewish holidays begin in the evening - Jewish reckoning of a day is from sundown to sundown (in Genesis chapter 1 we are told that when God created the world, "there was evening and there was morning, one day" - evening comes before morning as the marking of a day). Leviticus chapter 23 presents the original list of Jewish holy days although newer holidays have been added to this original listing:
The Jewish holiday cycle begins in the Fall with Rosh Hashanah
, the Jewish New Year, beginning a ten day period of "High Holy Days" culminating with the holiest of days: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is at this time when most Jews attend synagogue prayer services: evening, morning, afternoon. Even the most lax of Jews who may never go to synagogue at any other time of year will attend at this time. The High Holidays are a time for reflection over the past year and anticipation of a happy and healthy new year. To reflect over wrongs committed in the past year, to make amends with one's fellow human and, on the Day of Atonement, make amends with God is to start the new year off with a clean slate - fresh and renewed and ready to do better in the coming year. The New Year is celebrated with a formal dinner with family and then off to synagogue. On Yom Kippur there is a 24 hour fast and then, at the close of the High Holiday period, there is a light meal to break the fast, again, with family.
Following four days after Yom Kippur is the fall harvest festival of Sukkot: the "festival of booths." Sukkot lasts for eight days, at which time, at the synagogue and at their homes, Jews will build light booths open to the air and sky. They will eat their meals in this booth to celebrate the bounty of food God provides for sustenance. This occasion also commemorates the time when, after the Exodus from Egypt, the ancient Hebrews wandered in the desert living and praying only in temporary huts.
The day after Sukkot ends is Simchat Torah - "joy over Torah". This celebration marks the end of the annual cycle of Torah reading and the beginning of the next cycle. The celebration in synagogue is marked by joyous dancing and marching of the Torah around the synagogue and sometimes out into the streets. The last verses of the last book of Torah (Deuteronomy) are read and then the Torah is rewound and the first verses of the first book (Genesis) are read. Many synagogues actually have several Torah scrolls and will have a second already set to the second reading for the day (as it can take some time to rewind a scroll).
Perhaps the most well known of Jewish holidays is Chanukah. However, this is actually a minor late fall/early winter festival not nearly as important as many (Jews and non-Jews alike) tend to think it is. Chanukah (also spelled Hanukkah) is a commemoration of an historic 2nd century BCE event wherein the Hebrew people won their right to freedom of worship under Greek rule. Chanukah means "dedication" and celebrates the rededication of the ancient Hebrew Temple to God after its desecration by the Greeks. The familiar lighting of eight candles over the eight nights of Chanukah represents the "great miracle that happened there" - one day's worth of purified oil kept the Eternal Flame lit for eight days until more oil could be purified. Common symbolic foods associated with Chanukah is anything fried in oil, such as potato pancakes. Gifts that are exchanged are a more contemporary development, as is the increasing commercialization of the holiday - both in response to the commercial aspect of Christmas. Chanukah is not the "Jewish Christmas" - it is mere coincidence that it happens to fall at the same time of the year as the Christian holiday.
Purim is a mid-winter holiday that commemorates another historical event from Judaism's ancient past. The story of Purim is told in the Biblical book of Esther wherein the ancient Persian King and his advisor, Haman, devised a plan to eliminate the Jews from Persia. Through the work of Esther and her cousin Mordecai, the plan was thwarted and the Jews were saved from potential annihilation. Purim is a joyous celebration of Jewish survival. On this day, Jews young and old dress in costume of characters from the story as they attend carnivals (often held in the synagogue community room) to celebrate in joy. In synagogue on this day the story is read and whenever evil Haman's name comes up the people shout and stamp their feet and make all sorts of noise (often with gragers such as those used at our own New's Year's Eve) all in effort to drown out the name of Haman.
Another well-known Jewish holiday is, of course, Passover - "Pesach" in Hebrew. Passover falls on the first full moon after the vernal equinox (start of spring) and lasts for eight days. Once again, we have a Jewish holiday that commemorates the key historic event in the life of the Hebrew people: the Exodus of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in ancient Egypt. Moses is the hero of this story and the story of the enslavement and freedom is retold every year around the Passover seder table. Seder means "order" and is a ritual meal with symbolic use of foods such as unlevened bread (matzah), bitter horse radish, greens, and sweet charoset (a mixture of apples and wine). Family and friends gather around the table for the retelling (haggadah) of the story. A festive meal concludes the evening. This is a holiday observed more in the home than in synagogue. It is also centered on the young - the symbolic retelling of the story of the Exodus is a way to pass the Jewish history and heritage down to the next generation.
The first day of Passover begins the "counting of the Omar" - 50 days leading up to the next major Jewish holy day: Shavuot or the Jewish Pentecost. Seven weeks after Passover, Jews commemorate the receiving of Torah at Sinai. The events that began with the Exodus from Egypt, climax when the ancient Hebrew people, led by Moses, reached the foot of Mt. Sinai. Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law. Shavuot is observed by synagogue worship for the occasion. In many contemporary synagogues this holiday, which falls toward the end of May, serves as the occasion when a class of teens marks the culmination of their Hebrew school education. Very often the young people themselves lead the service, doing the various readings and even offering the lesson through prepared speeches.
There are yet other, minor Jewish holidays including an arbor day, a commemoration of the destruction of the first and second Temples, and the two most recent entries into the Jewish calendar: a day commemorating the Holocaust victims and survivors, and Israel Independence Day.
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