Sunday, September 28 2008

Happy New Year

The Shofar, made from a ram's horn, is blown to call upon listeners to begin repentance

I love commemorative holidays, even when they're not mine. I think you learn the most about people from the celebrations of their shared experience, culture and heritage. By understanding what others revere, or even just the things they hold to as an honour to their antecedents, you find deeper understanding.

I'm lucky enough to have a friend going to Hebrew school right now, and she's in the middle of preparations for the High Holy Days of the Jewish faith, which got me looking at the ceremonies. Of course, part of my interest in the cultural anthropology of Judaism lies in their attitudes towards wine and wine consumption. While my own religious background is pretty much anti-alcohol, Judaism sanctifies every Sabbath and holy day with wine. In fact, the bible story of Jesus celebrating passover with his disciples with the blessing and drinking of wine is a form of sanctification in Judaism, called 'Kiddush' in Hebrew, and the common prayer used before drinking is 'Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who createst the fruit of the vine'.

It's a pretty cool world where the simple act of consuming wine includes a mindfulness of the greater universe around us and thankfulness for the blessings we have.

This Monday, sunset marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and the start of the year 5769 in the Jewish calendar. It's an intense and solemn 10-days of ritual, introspection and contemplation, concluding with the fast of Yom Kippur. The major themes are the sovereignty of God, and remembrance the covenant with his people at Sinai, and redemption, symbolized by the sounding of the shofar, a ram's horn used as a wind instrument.

Blowing the Shofar. Sure, it's solemn, but that doesn't keep it from looking really cool

An interesting part of Rosh Hashanah is that most of the observations are done in the synagogue itself. Typically, Judaism tends to focus more on at-home rituals, but High Holy Day crowds are so great that many synagogues have to sell tickets to anticipate scheduled seatings. There are many fascinating aspects of the ceremonies and observances, from the Mikveh (a ritual bath to purify oneself) to Tashlikh, casting bread upon waters to represent casting sins away to the depths.

Traditional start to the Rosh Hashanah meal

Of course, there can be no celebration without food, and one of the food-related rituals is the Rosh Hashanah meal. In order to symbolise sweetness for the coming new year, apples are dipped in honey as a first course, then challah bread in honey, and afterwards, it's a feast, culminating in pomegranates (the seeds are symbolic of God's commandments in the Torah) and cups of wine to toast the coming year.

Sounds pretty sweet to me. A happy, peaceful and safe new year to everybody.

posted by Tim at 07:19PM

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