Rosh Hashonah

Sundown Wednesday is the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays. Wednesday night and alll day Thursday we celebrate Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish New Year. The following is from the Judaism 101 site. 

In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, "head of the year" or "first of the year." Rosh Hashanah is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. There is one important similarity between the Jewish New Year and the American one: Many Americans use the New Year as a time to plan a better life, making "resolutions." Likewise, the Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year. 

It is customary during Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year, to start fresh and cast your sins into the water.  This is called the tradition of Tashlikh. This Wednesday, Larry and I will travel to the closest body of water to our house, the Ballona Creek flood channel, and cast our sins off!

Click to make larger.  So, THIS is how gefilte fish is made!

One of the many traditions during this holiday is to eat something sweet to make sure that you will have a sweet and happy New Year.  We dip apples in honey or eat some delicious honey cake. Sometimes, I will cook a simple dinner of roast chicken, noodle kugel (with raisins for sweetness) and carrots cooked in butter, brown sugar and a bissel orange marmalade.  The carrots are cut into little circles to represent coins to symbolize wealth in the New Year.

It's always good to review your life for the past year and think ahead to what you'd like to accomplish in the coming year. We all make mistakes throughout the year. The difficult thing is to try and correct those mistakes or to not repeat them. I'll give it my best shot! This year, my Cousin Lauren is having a Rosh Hashonah dinner at her home.  I look forward to having challah and honey with my cousins and her besties.