The festivals — the Jewish year · The essentials of Judaism

In a minute

The Jewish year is a cycle of festivals that turn history and the seasons into living memory. Its calendar is lunar-solar: months follow the moon, and an extra month is added seven times in nineteen years so the festivals stay in their seasons. Days begin at nightfall. The year has three parts:

The High Holy Days in the autumn: Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, ten days of reflection and return to God.
The three pilgrimage festivals, when the people once went up to the Temple in Jerusalem: Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks) and Sukkot (Booths). Each is a harvest festival and a remembrance of the journey from Egypt to Sinai.
Later festivals, such as Hanukkah and Purim, joyful days that remember deliverance, along with fast days of mourning such as Tisha B'Av.

On the main biblical festival days, as on Shabbat, work is not done.

What it is and how it's lived

Rosh Hashanah — the New Year (Tishri 1–2, September or October)

The anniversary of the creation of the world, and a day of judgement when God, as King, remembers all creatures. The shofar, a ram's horn, is blown a hundred times in the synagogue, a wake-up call to the soul. Families eat apples dipped in honey for a sweet year, and round challah for the cycle of the year. Many go to a river or sea to say Tashlikh, symbolically casting away their sins.

"In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy convocation." (Leviticus 23:24, JPS 1917)

The Ten Days of Return and Yom Kippur (Tishri 10)

The ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur are the Days of Awe (Yamim Nora'im), a time for teshuvah, "return" or repentance: apologising to people one has hurt, giving tzedakah and praying. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year: a 25-hour fast from food and drink (for healthy adults), spent largely in synagogue. Many wear white. The day opens with Kol Nidre and closes at nightfall with Ne'ilah, "the closing of the gates", and a single long blast of the shofar.

"For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the LORD." (Leviticus 16:30, JPS 1917)

The Mishnah teaches that Yom Kippur atones for wrongs between a person and God; for wrongs between people, it atones only once a person has made peace with the one they wronged (paraphrased; Mishnah, Yoma 8:9).

Sukkot — the Festival of Booths (Tishri 15–21)

Five days after Yom Kippur, families build a sukkah, a temporary hut with a roof of branches through which the stars can be seen, and eat (some sleep) in it for seven days, remembering the forty years in the wilderness. They wave the four species: a palm branch (lulav), myrtle, willow and a citron (etrog). It is called "the season of our rejoicing".

"Ye shall dwell in booths seven days" (Leviticus 23:42, JPS 1917)

The festival ends with Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, when the yearly Torah reading ends and begins again with dancing.

Pesach — Passover (Nisan 15–22, March or April)

Pesach remembers the exodus from slavery in Egypt. For eight days (seven in Israel and in many Progressive communities) Jews eat no leavened bread (chametz) and eat matzah, the flat "bread of affliction". Homes are cleaned of every crumb of chametz beforehand. On the first night(s) families hold a seder ("order"), a festive meal at which the story is told from the Haggadah: the youngest child asks four questions beginning "Why is this night different from all other nights?"; symbolic foods are eaten (bitter herbs for the bitterness of slavery, salt water for tears, charoset for the mortar of the bricks); four cups of wine are drunk; a cup is poured for Elijah; and it ends with "Next year in Jerusalem!"

"And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the LORD did for me when I came forth out of Egypt." (Exodus 13:8, JPS 1917)

Hebrew:

וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה יְהוָה לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם

The Mishnah says that in every generation each person must see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt (paraphrased; Mishnah, Pesachim 10:5).

Shavuot — the Festival of Weeks (Sivan 6–7, May or June)

Seven weeks after Pesach, counted day by day (the Omer), Shavuot celebrates the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Many stay up all night studying Torah, synagogues are decorated with flowers and greenery, the Ten Commandments are read, and dairy foods such as cheesecake are eaten. The Book of Ruth is read: the story of a woman who chose to join the Jewish people, set at harvest time.

Hanukkah — the Festival of Lights (Kislev 25, eight days, usually December)

Hanukkah ("dedication") remembers the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE, after the Maccabees led a revolt against the Seleucid Greek king Antiochus IV, who had banned Jewish practice. The Talmud tells that only one day's pure oil was found, yet it burned for eight days (paraphrased; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b). Each night one more light is lit on the hanukkiah (an eight-branched lamp with a "helper" light), placed in a window to "publicise the miracle". Families eat foods fried in oil, such as doughnuts and potato latkes, and children play with a spinning top (dreidel). It is a minor festival, and work is permitted.

Purim (Adar 14, February or March)

Purim remembers the story in the Book of Esther, when Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai saved the Jews of Persia from a plot by the king's minister Haman. The scroll (Megillah) is read aloud, and the congregation drowns out Haman's name with noise-makers. It is the most joyful day of the year, with costumes, plays and a festive meal, and four duties:

"that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor." (Esther 9:22, JPS 1917)

Days of memory

Tisha B'Av (Av 9, July or August) is a fast day mourning the destruction of both Temples and later tragedies; the Book of Lamentations is read sitting on the floor. Jewish communities also mark Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in spring.

Its inner meaning

The festivals turn memory into experience. "Thou shalt tell thy son" makes every parent a teacher and every child a questioner: the seder is designed so that children will ask why? The festivals also hold together the two sides of Jewish life: the natural year (barley, wheat and fruit harvests) and the historical story (freedom, revelation, the journey). And they hold together joy and seriousness: the Torah commands rejoicing at the festivals, and makes sure everyone shares in it:

"And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates." (Deuteronomy 16:14, JPS 1917)

Common misunderstandings, answered gently

"Hanukkah is Jewish Christmas." Hanukkah falls near Christmas and has lights and gifts in many families, but it is a minor festival about religious freedom and the rededication of the Temple, unrelated in meaning.
"Yom Kippur is a sad day." It is solemn, but Jews describe it as a day of hope and cleansing; the closing service ends in confidence that prayers have been heard.
"Passover is the Last Supper." The Last Supper is described in the Gospels as a Passover meal, but the Jewish seder is a celebration of the exodus in its own right, older than Christianity and shaped by the rabbis after the Temple fell.

Across the movements

Orthodox and Masorti communities outside Israel keep two days for the major festivals (a custom from the time when the new moon was announced from Jerusalem); Reform and Liberal communities usually keep one, as in Israel. All movements keep the High Holy Days, Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Hanukkah and Purim, and Progressive communities often add new readings, for example on freedom and justice at the seder.

Reflection

At the seder, you are told to see yourself as if you had come out of slavery. What freedom do you have that you could easily take for granted?

In the other traditions

Christianity: Easter grew from Passover (Jesus died and rose at Passover time), and Pentecost from Shavuot ("when the day of Pentecost had come", Acts 2:1, WEB); Christians remember them as the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Islam: Muslims fast in Ramadan ("as it was prescribed for those before you", Qur'an 2:183, Pickthall) and keep two Eids. The Prophet Muhammad recommended fasting on the tenth of Muharram, 'Ashura', which tradition links to the day Moses was saved from Pharaoh (paraphrased; Sahih al-Bukhari 2004).

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