Jewish Holidays
Before I start telling you about all the cool holidays that Jews celebrate I should note that I will not be including any dates because Jews actually go by a different calender. They use a lunar (rather than solar based calender such as the Gregorian one) which causes the holidays to fall on different days each year. If you are interested in finding out what date one falls on, the easiest way to do it is to enlist your good pal Google and simply type in the name of the holiday and the year you want to see when it falls on.
Shabbat
While Christians traditionally attend church on Sunday and think of it as a day of rest, Saturday is kind of the same set up for Jews. Jews believe that the 7 day on which God rested after creating the world (the story of which can be found in Genesis) was a Saturday. Every week from Sunset Friday to about an our after Sunset Saturday (25 hours total), they take time off, rest, and attend Synagogue in honor of this day which was ordained by God as a day of rest.
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish New Year Celebration which is seperate from what you may think of as normal New Year because again remember, Jews go by thier own calender. Their's starts on the day that they feel God finished the creation of the world, which they calculate to be August 22, 3760 BC, so for them Dec 2010 would've happened in the year 5770. Jewish years consist of 356 days, so every 3-4 years they add a leap year to keep things in sync with the Gregorian calender.
Yom Kippur
This is a day of repentance, where Jews fast from sunup to until dark/when the stars come out and spend the day in intense prayer, synagogue services, and public and private confession of sins. The idea is to ask for God’s forgiveness for all sins on this day because any left unresolved after it will become permanent in the Book of Judgment. It’s also believed that God writes the fate of individuals for the next year on Rosh Hashanah but waits until Yom Kippur to seal this fate. During the fasting period Jews abstain not only from eating and drinking but also from sex, bathing, wearing lotions or perfume, and wearing leather shoes.
Sukkot
Sukkot: is a happy 7 day feast where the Jews build and live in temporary structures like this one to commemorate the lives of their ancestors who lived in the desert for 40 years on the way out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
Purim
Purim is a holiday that commemorates the story of Esther, who has her own book in the Bible where you can read her story. As the book goes, Esther was a Jewish woman married to a Persian king who had a vizier named Haman. Haman was not a friend of the Jews and convinced the king to allow him to slaughter a large number of them on a day he would determine by casting lots (or “purim”). However the plan was foiled by Esther and her cousin/adoptive parent Mordecai. Instead Haman was killed and the Jews were allowed by the king to destroy their enemies.
Purim is celebrated today by reading aloud the book of Esther, feasting, drinking wine, giving to the poor, and sometimes the wearing of masks and costumes.
Purim is celebrated today by reading aloud the book of Esther, feasting, drinking wine, giving to the poor, and sometimes the wearing of masks and costumes.
Passover
Passover celebrates an event that occurred when Moses was attempting to talk Pharaoh into giving the Jews their freedom when they were held in captivity in Egypt. God, who had put Moses up to the task, backed him up by sending all sorts of gross plagues on the Egyptian community as warnings that they better listen. These included everything from swarms of locusts which covered the city and devoured the crops to a ton of frogs who…well who cares what they did, who wants to be covered in frogs? Anyway, the Egyptians wouldn’t listen so God had to pull out all the stops on an event that is commemorated on Passover. One night he sent an angel of death to kill the first born son of every household. The only catch was, if your door frame’s top and sides were smeared with the blood of a sacrificial lamb, your household would be spared or “passed over” by the angel. The next morning all of Egypt wept over their sons, while the Israelites, who had smeared the sacrificial blood, where finally granted their freedom from a brokenhearted Pharaoh.
Jews today commemorate Passover by eating what’s called a Seder dinner (pictured above), which includes the foods that were traditionally eaten on the night before the plague was to go down.
Jews today commemorate Passover by eating what’s called a Seder dinner (pictured above), which includes the foods that were traditionally eaten on the night before the plague was to go down.
Counting the Omer/ Lag B'Omer
There are 49 days between the second day of Passover and Shavu’ot and each night Jews keep a count of how many days have passed, which is known as “counting the Omer” (an Omer is a unit of measurement). Every night they recite a blessing and state how many days and weeks have passed. For example they might say, “Today is 14 days which is 2 weeks of the Omer.” These 49 days are intended to remind Jews of the time period between the Exodus from Egypt and the day that they received the Torah. It is also considered a time of mourning where weddings, parties, dances, and even haircuts are put on hold out of respect for the Jewish Rabbi Akiva, whose 24,000 students where killed during this time by a God sent plague for not “showing proper respect to one another”.
However during this period is also Lag B'omer, which falls on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer. On this day there is a temporary lift on the time of mourning and hence a very busy day for barbers and partiers. In most Jewish communities Lag B'omer is a school holiday and often celebrated with bonfires.
However during this period is also Lag B'omer, which falls on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer. On this day there is a temporary lift on the time of mourning and hence a very busy day for barbers and partiers. In most Jewish communities Lag B'omer is a school holiday and often celebrated with bonfires.
Shavu'ot
This is a two day long celebration of the revelation of the Torah to Moses when he went up to Mount Sinai. You aren’t supposed to work during the celebration and some Jews stay up all night studying the Torah to commemorate it.
Tisha B'av
Tisha B’av- a universal day of mourning for Jews, this sad day was originally intended to remember the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, not once but twice. The original temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. and the again by the Romans in 70 C.E., both coincidently on Tisha B’av or the 9th of Av. These days Tisha B’av is also used to mourn various other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout the years and on this day they refrain from food, drink, work, even smiling and laughter. Often the cabinet where the Torah is kept in Jewish Synagogues is draped in black.
Hanukkah
Though one of the most well known Jewish Holidays, Hanukkah is oddly not one of the most important. Often mistaken by Gentiles (non-Jews) as sort of a Jewish Christmas because of it's proximaty to the holiday, this is actually not true at all and a little offensive to some Jews. Hanukkah is actually an 8 day celebration that commemorates a miracle that took place way back in the days just after Alexander the Great. You see it all began when Alexander had conquered Syria, Egypt, and Palestine but allowed everybody there to keep practicing their own religion. Everything was going alright and the Jews of the time were even adjusting pretty well to the Greek culture, until Alexander died and was succeeded by a guy named Antiochus IV. Antiochus was not such a nice guy and began persecuting, restricting the rights of, and even slaughtering the Jewish population.
Determined to preserve their rights and culture, a few groups who were collectively known as the Maccabean Jews revolted and were able to regain control of their temple. However when they arrived they discovered that there was only enough oil left in the temple to last for one night. However miraculously the oil lasted for 8 nights which was exactly how much time they needed to produce new oil.
Determined to preserve their rights and culture, a few groups who were collectively known as the Maccabean Jews revolted and were able to regain control of their temple. However when they arrived they discovered that there was only enough oil left in the temple to last for one night. However miraculously the oil lasted for 8 nights which was exactly how much time they needed to produce new oil.
Jews today celebrate this miracle as well as the rededication of the Temple by lighting the candles of a menorah for 8 successive nights.
How is it done you may ask? As follows:
How to Celebrate Hanukkah:
1. Obtain a Menorah. That's the candleholder on the right, a picture of which I've included so you don't confuse.
2. On the first night, light the Shamash or helper candle. It's the candle that's in the middle, a little higher than the others. Recite 3 blessings: the l'hadikh neir (a prayer over the candles), sheasah nisim (a prayer of thanks to God for performing miracles for the ancestors of the Jewish people), and the she-hekhianu (a prayer of thanks to God for Hanukkah). The full texts of these prayers can be found by clicking here: Hanukkah Prayers.
3. Light the first candle on the far right side of the Menorah with the Shamash.
4. Each night light another candle going from right to left across the line. However when you go to light, light the newest candle first and go down the line of ones that have already been lit. Say the first two blessings, as the third (She-hekhianu) is only said the first night of Hanukkah.
How is it done you may ask? As follows:
How to Celebrate Hanukkah:
1. Obtain a Menorah. That's the candleholder on the right, a picture of which I've included so you don't confuse.
2. On the first night, light the Shamash or helper candle. It's the candle that's in the middle, a little higher than the others. Recite 3 blessings: the l'hadikh neir (a prayer over the candles), sheasah nisim (a prayer of thanks to God for performing miracles for the ancestors of the Jewish people), and the she-hekhianu (a prayer of thanks to God for Hanukkah). The full texts of these prayers can be found by clicking here: Hanukkah Prayers.
3. Light the first candle on the far right side of the Menorah with the Shamash.
4. Each night light another candle going from right to left across the line. However when you go to light, light the newest candle first and go down the line of ones that have already been lit. Say the first two blessings, as the third (She-hekhianu) is only said the first night of Hanukkah.
General Hanukkah Things to do
- Eat lots of fried foods because oil is significant to the holiday. A favorite of many Jews is latkes or potato pancakes.
- Give small gifts. Many times these take the forms of small sums of money or chocolates.
- Give small gifts. Many times these take the forms of small sums of money or chocolates.
- Play the dreidel, which is a small top with Jewish letters on each of it’s four sides. How do you play it?
-Everybody starts out with a certain number of coins. When it’s someone’s turn to spin, everybody puts on coin in the pot.
- If it lands on the letter Nun, nothing happens. If it lands on the letter Gimel, the spinner gets the whole pot, if it lands on the letter Hei the spinner gets half the pot, and if it lands on Shin, the spinner puts one more coin in.
- This continues until someone wins by having all the coins. Then the coins are redivided because the whole thing is done in good fun.
-Everybody starts out with a certain number of coins. When it’s someone’s turn to spin, everybody puts on coin in the pot.
- If it lands on the letter Nun, nothing happens. If it lands on the letter Gimel, the spinner gets the whole pot, if it lands on the letter Hei the spinner gets half the pot, and if it lands on Shin, the spinner puts one more coin in.
- This continues until someone wins by having all the coins. Then the coins are redivided because the whole thing is done in good fun.