First in a series about Jewish Holidays

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Jewish Holidays
Level: Basic

This is the first in a series of pages on the Jewish holidays. This page discusses some basic considerations that apply to all or many holidays. Each of the individual holiday pages talks about the significance of a holiday, its traditional observances and related customs, the date on which each holiday will occur for the next five years, and in some cases recipes for traditional, Ashkenazic http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/ashkenazic.htm holiday-related foods.

The holidays covered are listed in the site index in the right margin. For those who just want information on a need-to-know basis, there is also A Gentile's Guide to the Jewish Holidays http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayg.htm, which will give you a basic awareness of the holidays most commonly observed by American Jews.

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When Holidays Begin
All Jewish holidays begin the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is because a Jewish "day" begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight. If you read the story of creation in Genesis Ch. 1, you will notice that it says, "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day." From this, we infer that a day begins with evening, that is, sunset. Holidays end at nightfall of the date specified on most calendars; that is, at the time when it becomes dark out, about an hour after sunset.

For the precise time when a holiday begins and ends in your area, consult the list of candle lighting times provided by the Orthodox Union http://www.ou.org/holidays/candlelighting/, by Chabad http://www.chabad.org/calendar/location.htm or by any Jewish calendar http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm.

For a discussion of why Jewish holidays occur on different days every year, see Jewish Calendar.

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Work on Holidays
Work is not permitted on Rosh Hashanah http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/rosh.htm, on Yom Kippur http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/yomkippur.htm, on the first and second days of Sukkot http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/sukkot.htm, on Shemini Atzeret http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/shemini.htm, on Simchat Torah http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/simkhat.htm, on Shavu'ot http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/shavuot.htm, and the first, second, seventh and eighth days of Passover http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/passover.htm. The "work" prohibited on those holidays is the same as that prohibited on Shabbat http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/shabbat.htm, except that cooking, baking, transferring fire and carrying, all of which are forbidden on Shabbat, are permitted on holidays. When a holiday occurs on Shabbat, the full Shabbat restrictions are observed.

For observant Jews who work in the secular gentile world, this can be problematic in some years: if all of the non-working holidays fall on weekdays (as they sometimes do), an observant Jew would need to take 13 days off of work just to observe holidays. This is more vacation time that some people have available.

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You may notice that the number of days of some holidays do not accord with what the Bible http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/bible.htm specifies. In most cases, we celebrate one more day than the Bible requires. There is an interesting reason for this additional day.

The Jewish calendar http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/calendar.htm is lunar, with each month beginning on the new moon. The new months used to be determined by observation. When the new moon was observed, the Sanhedrin declared the beginning of a new month and sent out messengers to tell people when the month began. People in distant communities could not always be notified of the new moon (and therefore, of the first day of the month), so they did not know the correct day to celebrate. They knew that the old month would be either 29 or 30 days, so if they didn't get notice of the new moon, they celebrated holidays on both possible days.

This practice of celebrating an extra day was maintained as a custom even after we adopted a precise mathematical calendar, because it was the custom of our ancestors. This extra day is not celebrated by Israelis, regardless of whether they are in Israel http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/israel.htm at the time of the holiday, because it is not the custom of their ancestors, but it is celebrated by everybody else, even if they are visiting Israel at the time of the holiday.

Rosh Hashanah http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/rosh.htm is celebrated as two days everywhere (in Israel and outside Israel), because it occurs on the first day of a month. Messengers were not dispatched on the holiday, so even people in Israel did not know whether a new moon had been observed, and everybody celebrated two days. The practice was also maintained as a custom after the mathematical calendar was adopted.

Yom Kippur http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/yomkippur.htm is celebrated only one day everywhere, because extending the holiday's severe restrictions for a second day would cause an undue hardship.

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Below is a list of all major holiday dates for the next five years. All holidays begin at sundown on the date before the date specified here.
-------- ----------------5768-------- 5769 --------5770 --------5771 --------5772
Rosh Hashanah ------9/13/2007----9/30/2008---9/19/2009---9/9/2010----9/29/2011
Yom Kippur-----------9/22/2007---10/9/2008---9/28/2009---9/18/2010----10/8/2011
Sukkot---------------9/27/2007---10/14/2008--10/3/2009---9/23/2010----10/13/2011
Shemini Atzeret------10/4/2007----10/21/2008--10/10/2009--9/30/2010----10/20/2011
Simchat Torah-------10/5/2007---10/22/2008--10/11/2009---10/1/2010----10/21/2011
Chanukkah-----------12/5/2007---12/22/2008--12/12/2009--12/2/2010----12/21/2011
Tu B'Shevat----------1/22/2008---2/9/2009----1/30/2010---1/20/2011----2/8/2012
Purim----------------3/21/2008---3/10/2009---2/28/2010----3/20/2011----3/8/2012
Pesach (Passover)---4/20/2008----4/9/2009----3/30/2010----4/19/2011----4/7/2012
Lag B'Omer-----------5/23/2008----5/12/2009---5/2/2010-----5/22/2011----5/10/2012
Shavu'ot-------------6/9/2008-----5/29/2009---5/19/2010----6/8/2011----5/27/2012
Tisha B'Av-----------8/10/2008----7/30/2009---7/20/2010----8/9/2011----7/28/2012


For additional holiday dates, see Links to Jewish Calendars http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm#Links.


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© Copyright 5756-5767 (1995-2007), Tracey R Rich

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Level: Basic

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u238/lucysmp/tishri.gif

The month of Tishri http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/tishri.htm, which falls during the months of September and October on the Gregorian calendar, is probably the busiest time of the year for Jewish holidays. In the month of Tishri, there are a total of 13 days of special religious significance, 7 of them holidays on which work is not permitted.

These holidays include the holidays known as the "High Holidays," the most important holidays of the Jewish year: Rosh Hashanah http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/rosh.htm and Yom Kippur http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/yomkippur.htm. A 1990 survey showed that only 40% of all Jews affiliate themselves with a synagogue, but 55% attend synagogue http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/synagogue.htm on these holidays. If a Jew ever goes to synagogue (other than for weddings http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/wedding.htm or bar mitzvahs http://www.jewfaq.org/defs/barmitz.htm ), it is for these holidays.


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© Copyright 5756-5760 (1995-1999), Tracey R Rich