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Judaism

Rosh Hashanah

When is Rosh Hashanah in 2027, the Jewish New Year: its meaning as the day of judgement, the sounding of the shofar, apples dipped in honey and the start of the Days of Awe.

Next date

2–3 October 2027

Begins at sunset the evening before.

Begins at sunset on 1 October.

In brief

  1. I.Rosh Hashanah, “head of the year”, is the Jewish New Year.
  2. II.It is traditionally the day on which God judges the world and every person.
  3. III.The shofar, a ram’s horn, is sounded in the synagogue.
  4. IV.It opens the ten Days of Awe that end on Yom Kippur.

Chapter I

What it celebrates

Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of the world and the kingship of God. Tradition teaches that on this day all people pass before God to be judged, and their fate for the coming year is written, though it is not sealed until Yom Kippur.

It is therefore both festive and serious: a new beginning, and a call to look honestly at one’s life.

Chapter II

How it is kept

In the synagogue long services include the sounding of the shofar, a ram’s horn, a hundred times: long blasts, broken calls and quick notes that are meant to wake the soul. Families gather for festive meals with symbolic foods and wish each other Shanah tovah, “a good year”.

Chapter III

Around the world

Many Jews who rarely attend synagogue go at Rosh Hashanah. Each year tens of thousands of Hasidic pilgrims gather at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine, for the festival.

Questions people ask

What is eaten at Rosh Hashanah?

Apples dipped in honey for a sweet year, round challah loaves for the cycle of the year, pomegranates for many good deeds, and often the head of a fish, so that one may be “the head and not the tail”.

What is tashlich?

A custom on the first afternoon of going to a river or the sea and symbolically casting one’s sins into the water.

Sources and further reading

  1. Toronto Metropolitan University, “2027 Calendar of Religious, Indigenous and Spiritual Observances”
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “What is Rosh Hashanah, and when is it observed?”
  3. Michael Strassfeld, The Jewish Holidays: A Guide and Commentary (HarperCollins, 1985)

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