Jewish Festivals: Pesach, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
The Jewish Festival Calendar
The Jewish year is marked by a rich cycle of festivals and commemorations, each rooted in the Torah and in historical experience. Festivals serve multiple purposes: they renew the relationship with G-d, transmit Jewish identity across generations, commemorate historical events, and provide structured moments for repentance, joy, and remembrance. This lesson covers four of the most significant: Yom Hashoah, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Pesach (Passover).
Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance
Yom Hashoah (“Day of the Holocaust”) is observed on the 27th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, in spring. The Israeli parliament (the Knesset) set the day in law in 1959 to honour the memory of the approximately six million Jewish men, women, and children murdered by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. In Israel, air-raid sirens sound across the country, and the entire nation falls silent for two minutes. Memorial ceremonies take place in synagogues, schools, and community centres across Britain and around the world.
The commemoration involves the lighting of six yellow candles, representing the six million victims. Survivors and their families share testimony; the phrase “Never Again” captures the determination that the lessons of the Holocaust must be kept alive. Yom Hashoah has particular theological significance: it raises profound questions about theodicy (how a just G-d could permit such suffering), and some Jewish thinkers have responded by emphasising human responsibility and the obligation to pursue justice. The day also reinforces the importance of the State of Israel as a homeland and refuge for the Jewish people.
Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is observed on the 27th of Nisan. Six yellow candles are lit to represent the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The day raises questions of theodicy and reinforces the phrase “Never Again.”
Rosh Hashanah: The Jewish New Year
Rosh Hashanah (“Head of the Year”) falls on the first and second days of Tishrei (September or October). It marks the Jewish New Year and, according to tradition, the anniversary of the creation of the world. Rosh Hashanah is also understood as the beginning of the period of divine judgement: tradition teaches that on this day G-d opens three books — one for the wholly righteous, one for the wholly wicked, and one for those in between. Most people fall into the third category, and they have ten days (the “Days of Awe”) to repent before the books are sealed on Yom Kippur.
The central symbol of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar — a ram’s horn blown in the synagogue during prayer. The shofar’s sound is a call to wake up and examine one’s life before G-d. It is blown in a sequence of notes that includes broken, sobbing blasts and one very long, unbroken blast (tekiah gedolah), symbolising the urgent need for repentance. The synagogue service on Rosh Hashanah is longer than usual, including special liturgical poems (piyyutim) and prayers.
Traditional foods for Rosh Hashanah include apples dipped in honey, symbolising the hope for a sweet new year. Round challah bread (rather than the usual plaited form) symbolises the cycle of the year. The greeting “Shanah tovah” (“a good year”) is exchanged among Jewish people throughout this period.
Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement
Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”) falls ten days after Rosh Hashanah and is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It is a day of solemn fasting — observant Jews abstain from food and drink, washing for pleasure, wearing leather shoes, using cosmetics, and marital relations for approximately 25 hours, from before sunset until after dark the following evening. The fast is a physical sign of humility and self-examination before G-d.
Synagogue services on Yom Kippur last for much of the day. The evening service, known as Kol Nidre (named after the haunting prayer that opens it), is one of the most attended services of the Jewish year. Many Jews who do not attend synagogue at any other time come for Kol Nidre. The day culminates in Ne’ilah, the “closing” service, representing the closing of the heavenly gates. The shofar is blown one final time to mark the end of Yom Kippur. Jews emerge from the fast with the hope that their repentance has been accepted and their names inscribed in the Book of Life.
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year. Observant Jews fast for approximately 25 hours and spend much of the day in synagogue, culminating in the Ne’ilah service. The shofar is blown at the end of the fast. It completes the ten Days of Awe that begin at Rosh Hashanah.
Pesach (Passover) is the spring festival commemorating the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, described in the book of Exodus and commanded to be observed “for ever” in Exodus 12:14. It lasts for seven days (eight in the diaspora). Preparation begins weeks in advance: the home must be thoroughly cleaned to remove all chametz (leavened products). This cleansing is symbolic as well as practical — it represents removing spiritual as well as physical “puffing up.”
The central ritual of Pesach is the Seder meal, held on the first (and in the diaspora, second) night of Pesach. The word seder means “order” — the meal follows a strict sequence. Participants read from the Haggadah (“telling”), which retells the Exodus story through narrative, songs, questions, and discussion. The youngest child present asks the Four Questions, beginning with “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
The Seder plate holds symbolic foods: bitter herbs (maror) representing the bitterness of slavery; a lamb shank bone representing the Passover sacrifice; a roasted egg representing sacrifice and mourning; charoset (a paste of fruit and nuts) representing mortar used by slaves; parsley or another vegetable representing spring and hope; and a second bitter vegetable. Matzah (unleavened bread) replaces chametz throughout the festival, remembering that the Israelites left Egypt in such haste that their bread had no time to rise.
There is considerable diversity in how Jews observe these festivals. Orthodox communities observe Pesach for eight days and maintain strict standards for identifying chametz; Reform communities may observe seven days and apply less restrictive food standards. For Yom Kippur, some non-observant Jews attend Kol Nidre as a cultural practice even if they do not fast. Rosh Hashanah observance ranges from full-day synagogue attendance in Orthodox communities to a family meal and card-sending in more secular households. This diversity reflects the broad spectrum of Jewish identity in Britain today, from strictly Orthodox communities to fully secular cultural Jews.