Rosh Hashanah Begins at Sunset

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - L'shana tova! Or "good year" as this evening at sunset marks the start of Rosh Hashanah for people of the Jewish faith.

The Jewish new year's holiday takes place on the first and second days of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish year. Rosh Hashanah translated means "head of the year" and this year starts at sunset on Sept. 8 and concludes at nightfall on Sept. 10.

The website Judaism 101 writes that there is a similarity between the Jewish New Year and the American New Year. Both are seen as a time of introspection, during which people look back on past mistakes and plan what changes to make in the future.

The holiday is marked by the blowing of the shofar, a ram's horn that is blown like a trumpet. A hundred notes are sounded each day.

St.Augustine.com stated that the blowing of the shofar symbolizes three different expressions of the human spirit and belief in God. There is a tekiah, or a long sound that denotes triumph of God, the shevarim, or broken sounds, which mean weeping, and the teruah, or tremelo, which denotes alarm.

The practice goes back to when Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as a act of complete faith in God. At the last minute God ordered Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead, and spare his son.

Much of the day is spent in synagogue and no work is allowed. The website Chabad.org says it is about having an intimate relationship with God and coronating him in a way, establishing a bond of ’We are your people and you are your king.’

Going along with the spirit of rebirth there is the ’casting off’ of sins into water, usually done at a lake, river or the sea as Jews recite the Tashlich prayers.

The rebirth theme also follows with food.

The evenings for Rosh Hashanah will include dinners consisting of traditional foods such as brisket, roast chicken, challah, matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, chopped liver and kugel, noted the Livingston Patch .

The holiday meals also focus on the sweet food that symbolizes hopes for a "Sweet New Year."

About.com's Judaism site notes that sweet items like honey, apples, pomegranate, challah and honey cake are usually associated with the holiday.

For Rosh Hashanah challah, a sweet bread, is shaped into spiral or round loafs to symbolize the continuity of creation.