Major Jewish Holidays

Tu B'Shevat

• Meaning "15th of Shevat" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 15th of Shevat (eleventh month of Jewish Calendar) • One of the Jewish "new years" • "Birthday of the Trees" - historically used to measure age of fruit trees • Traditions: eating fruit or spices, planting trees

Sukkot

• Meaning "Booths" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 15th of Tisrei • Seven day harvest festival, memory of the Jewish people wandering the deserts after being freed from Egyptian slavery • Traditions: building a sukkah (an outdoor open-air booth) and living/spending time inside; adorning the sukkah with fruits and gourds; ritual shaking of the lulav (branches of palm, willow, and myrtle) and the etrog (citrus fruit) inside the sukkah

Yom Kippur

• Meaning "Day of Atonement" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 10th day of Tisrei • Day of prayer and confession of sins • End of the 10 Days of Awe - holiest day of the year • Traditions: fasting, Kol Nidre ("all vows") Service, wearing white, spending the day praying in place of worship

Simchat Torah

Meaning "Rejoicing the Torah" (the Torah is the name for the Jewish holy book containing the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) • Date on Jewish Calendar: 22nd of Tisrei • Celebrating completion of reading the Torah (finishing the yearly cycle of reading a Torah portion every week) • Traditions: dancing with the Torah and other festivities

Chanukkah (Hanukkah)

• Meaning "Dedication", called the Festival of Lights • Jewish calendar date: 25th of Kislev (9th month of the Jewish calendar), lasts eight days • Remembering the miracle of the small amount oil lasting eight days and nights in the rededicated Temple (Antiochus IV of Syria (circa 170 BC) had oppressed the Jews and had the Temple in Jerusalem converted to Hellenistic practices; the Jews revolted and successfully regained their Temple) • Traditions: lighting candles each night in a nine pronged Menorah (a candelabrum) with the middle shamash candle for lighting the others; eating Latkes (Potato pancakes) and other fried foods (such as doughnuts); playing games with a dreidel - a four-sided spinning top

Rosh Hashanah

• Meaning "Head of the Year" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 1st and 2nd days of Tisrei (the seventh month) • Celebration of the Jewish calendar new year (one of several Jewish "new years") • Beginning of the 10 Days of Awe • Traditions: blowing the Shofar (a ram's horn), eating apples and honey and round braided challah, symbolic casting away of sins (Tashlich)

Purim

• Meaning "Lots" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 14th of Adar (12th month of Jewish calendar) • Celebration of Queen Esther saving the Jewish people, as recounted in the Book of Esther o Main characters: Esther, Mordecai, Persian King Ahasuerus, egotistical villain Haman who plotted to kill the Jewish people o Titular reference to Haman's use of lots to decide the date of the Jew's annihilation • Traditions: reading the Book of Esther; booing/shouting to blot out the despised name of the villain Haman; spinning wooden noisemakers called groggers; eating Hamamtashen (triangular shaped cookies with sweet fillings, meant to portray the three-sided shape of Haman's hat); dressing up in costumes

Tisha B'Av

• Meaning "Ninth of Av" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 9th of Av (fifth month of Jewish calendar) • Mourning over the historical suffering of the Jewish people • Traditions: fasting

Shavuot

• Meaning "Weeks" • Date on Jewish Calendar: 5th or 6th of Sivan (third month of Jewish Calendar) • Celebration of the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai • Traditions: reading the book of Ruth, eating dairy, studying Torah and praying all night

Passover (Pesach)

• Meaning "to spare" or "to pass over" • Date on Jewish Calendar: Starts 15th of Nissan (first month on the Jewish calendar) • Remembrance of the story of Exodus: bondage in Egypt and God freeing the Jews via Moses o Titular reference of the Angel of Death passing over Jewish homes (marked with rams blood) during the 10th • Traditions: large seder ("ordered") meal with many ritualistic consecutive parts, often read from a Haggadah book, including: and final plague to force Pharaoh Ramses II to release the Jews A seder plate of a bone, a roasted egg, karpas, horseradish, bitter herbs, and charoset Retelling the story of Exodus Asking the Four Questions Pouring a glass of wine for the prophet Elijah Hiding a piece of Matzah called the Afikomen o Avoiding consumption of leavened breads (chametz) to remember how the freed Jews had to escape without time for their bread to rise; eating Matzah - unleavened bread