Every autumn, Jewish communities worldwide come together to usher in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Unlike the fireworks and celebrations of January 1, this holiday is about reflection, repentance and renewal. 

In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means “head of the year” and marks the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe, a time of self-reflection culminating with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The holiday blends sorrowful prayer with celebratory traditions: the shofar’s blast, apples dipped in honey to savor the sweetness and the tashlich ritual of throwing bread into flowing streams to cast off sin.

Home and family are the center of the holiday. Symbolic foods include round loaves of challah bread to mark the roundness of the year, pomegranates bursting with seeds to remind the faithful of abundance and good deeds known as mitzvot.

 “We eat honey and apples to have a sweet new year,” said Miriam Frank, who was celebrating the holiday with family after attending synagogue services. 

She also described the challah for the High Holy Days: “For Rosh Hashanah and for the High Holy Days, it’s a round challah instead of the regular braided one. It kind of looks like a cinnamon roll.”

 For Miriam, dining at her grandparents’ home, just around the corner, is as much a celebration of the holiday as the food. “We all sit down and eat dinner, and we go to services together,” she explained. Preparation for Rosh Hashanah begins well in advance of the holiday. 

The lead-up month is a time of solemn reflection, prayer and sometimes additional synagogue attendance. “The month before Rosh Hashanah has always been a time of reflection as we prepare for the High Holy Days,” said Mary Frank, Miriam’s mother. 

As executive director of a synagogue, she explained, “It is the busiest time of the year for me.” There are services throughout the period, and Mary emphasized just how full the calendar: “There are four services related to Rosh Hashanah, four related to Yom Kippur, one for the holiday of Sukkot and one for the holiday of Simchat Torah.”

These weeks, her family has also been participating in as much reconnection with other family’s, explaining, “We go to synagogue a lot, share meals with other Jewish families, and reconnect with our family that doesn’t live close by.”

Although Hanukkah may be more well known to the general populace, Jews consider Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to be the most sacred and significant time of the year.

 “Most people think Hanukkah is one of our largest holidays, but in reality Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the two really large ones,” Frank said.

 From casting bread into the water to hearing the shofar’s blast from days of yore, from indulging in sweet foods to apologizing to others, the High Holy Days serve as a reminder to Jews that the new year is not only a time for celebration but also an opportunity to renew, reconnect and begin anew.