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Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is when we remember the past year but also consider our thoughts and plans for the future, hoping for a happy and healthy year ahead for our families, friends and ourselves.

Jews from all over the world gather in their synagogues to remember the creation of Adam and Eve. We celebrate with sweet foods, apples dipped in honey and delicious honey cake -- another wonderful recipe below, Pomegranates are eaten too, have you ever tried to count the seeds in a pomegranate? Well, there are far too many to count, but for the New Year we would wish for as many good things as there are seeds in a pomegranate. A sweet carrot dish called tzimmes is also sometimes eaten. What is also interesting is that the traditional Shabbat Challa bread is baked as a round shape instead of being plaited, representing the circle of life and the coming year , and we always hope that the next year will roll around as smoothly as the circular challah.

In the synagogue we hear the 'shofar'. In ancient times the shofar was sounded to announce a new month. Before the shofar is blown there is a special blessing and there are three different sounds. Tekia - which is one long blast, Shevarim - which is three, and Terua - which is 9 short, very fast blasts. Altogether l00 notes are blown in 3 periods during the service. Many children find the blowing of the 'shofar' their favourite part of the service.