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Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the year according to the traditional Jewish calendar. In 2023, Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on Friday, September 15. Learn more about how Rosh Hashanah is celebrated with traditions and sweet symbolic foods—and listen to the sound of the shofar!
What Is Rosh Hashanah?
Rosh Hashanah, literally “Head of the Year” in Hebrew, is the beginning of the Jewish new year. It is the first of the High Holidays or ”Days of Awe,” ending 10 days later with Yom Kippur.
This two-day festival marks the anniversary of human’s creation—and the special relationship between humans and God, the creator.
Rosh Hashanah begins with the sounding of the shofar, an instrument made of a ram’s horn, proclaiming God as King of the Universe, just as a trumpet would be sounded at a king’s coronation. In fact, Rosh Hashanah is described in the Torah as Yom Teru’ah, a day of sounding (the Shofar).
The sound of the shofar is also a call to repentance—to wake up and re-examine our commitment to God and to correct our ways. Thus begins the “Ten Days of Repentance” which ends with Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement.”
When Is Rosh Hashanah?
In 2023, Rosh Hashanah starts at sunset on Friday, September 15, and will run through nightfall on Sunday, September 17.
Note that the Jewish calendar is different than today’s civil calendar (the Gregorian calendar). It is a “Luni-Solar” calendar, established by the cycles of the Moon and the Sun, so the lengths of days vary by the season, controlled by the times of sunset, nightfall, dawn, and sunrise. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, occurs on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.
All Jewish holidays begin at sunset on the date listed.
Rosh Hashanah Dates
Year
Hebrew Year
Rosh Hashanah Begins (at Sunset on…)
2023
5784
Friday, September 15, 2023 (to nightfall of Sunday, September 17)
2024
5785
Wednesday, October 2, 2024 (to nightfall of Friday, October 4)
2025
5786
Monday, September 22, 2025 (to nightfall of Wednesday, September 24)
2026
5787
Friday, September 11, 2026 (to nightfall of Sunday, September 13)
Artist: Suzzi Glaser
Rosh Hashanah Traditions
The traditional way to wish someone a Happy New Year in Hebrew is by saying “Shana Tova.” In Hebrew this means “A Good Year.”
There are many traditions associated with Rosh Hashanah, including the following:
Attending synagogue and spending time with family and friends.
Reflecting on the year before and repenting for any wrongdoings and then reflecting on the year ahead to start afresh.
Wear white and new clothes, symbolizing purity.
As mentioned above, there is the sounding of the ram’s horn (shofar) on both mornings.
If you’re wondering what a shofar sounds like, take a listen below.
Every evening, candles are lit. Candles are often a symbol of remembrance.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Tashlich ceremony is performed. This involves visiting a body of fresh water to symbolically cast past sins away.
Spicy, sharp, or sour foods are avoided in favor of sweet delicacies, representing wishes for a sweet and pleasant year (not a bitter year). Nuts are also avoided.
Rosh Hashanah Foods
Food plays a large role in Rosh Hashanah tradition. Some of the symbolic foods include:
Pomegranates (as its many seeds symbolize the hope that the year will be rich with many blessings).
The head of a fish (or ram) asking God that in the coming year we be “a head and not a tail.”
Apples Dipped in Honey and Nuts
Make this simple Rosh Hashanah dish of apples dipped in honey and nuts!
Rosh Hashanah Poem
The New Year, Rosh-Hashanah, 5643
Not while the snow-shroud round dead earth is rolled, And naked branches point to frozen skies.— When orchards burn their lamps of fiery gold, The grape glows like a jewel, and the corn A sea of beauty and abundance lies, Then the new year is born.
Look where the mother of the months uplifts In the green clearness of the unsunned West, Her ivory horn of plenty, dropping gifts, Cool, harvest-feeding dews, fine-winnowed light; Tired labor with fruition, joy and rest Profusely to requite.
Blow, Israel, the sacred cornet! Call Back to thy courts whatever faint heart throb With thine ancestral blood, thy need craves all. The red, dark year is dead, the year just born Leads on from anguish wrought by priest and mob, To what undreamed-of morn?
For never yet, since on the holy height, The Temple’s marble walls of white and green Carved like the sea-waves, fell, and the world’s light Went out in darkness,—never was the year Greater with portent and with promise seen, Than this eve now and here.
Even as the Prophet promised, so your tent Hath been enlarged unto earth’s farthest rim. To snow-capped Sierras from vast steppes ye went, Through fire and blood and tempest-tossing wave, For freedom to proclaim and worship Him, Mighty to slay and save.
High above flood and fire ye held the scroll, Out of the depths ye published still the Word. No bodily pang had power to swerve your soul: Ye, in a cynic age of crumbling faiths, Lived to bear witness to the living Lord, Or died a thousand deaths.
In two divided streams the exiles part, One rolling homeward to its ancient source, One rushing sunward with fresh will, new heart. By each the truth is spread, the law unfurled, Each separate soul contains the nation’s force, And both embrace the world.
Kindle the silver candle’s seven rays, Offer the first fruits of the clustered bowers, The garnered spoil of bees. With prayer and praise Rejoice that once more tried, once more we prove How strength of supreme suffering still is ours For Truth and Law and Love. –Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)
If you observe Rosh Hashanah, please share your traditions below!
Happy new year! A time to recommit our dedication to the Creator most high. A time to wait for the coming of the Messiah. For some it will be the first coming, for some it will be the second. Search the scripture to know him!
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Deuteronomy 18 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
Psalm 118 22 The stone which the builders refused has become the head stone of the corner.
Romans 11 11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring! (Apostle Paul pleading for the Jews to join the church of Christ.)
A good and sweet year! We always gather as an extended family for candle lighting and dinner on erev (Eve) Rosh Hashanah. I love the High Holidays, it’s the halfway point after it before Pesach (Passover) and my family all gets together and has a great time for both. Even though there’s absolutely no relation to Easter or Christmas I suppose the family gathering and special time of year feeling is the same. We also have a creek near my parents house where we do tashlich. It rains half the time and it’s always a fun memory walking down the road in a group with our umbrellas. Our aunt will be 95 this year and she walks too!
Celebrating! The word Teru'ah does mean sounding but not just the shofar. It is a time for all to acknowledge Yehovah verbally in unison. I love this time of year because we see the changing of the leaf colors which is a picture of us changing our way of life as in Yom Kippur. Hoping all that celebrated this month have a blessed and happy time.
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