CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah will begin at sundown Sunday night and runs through Tuesday evening. It also marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days.
Jewish families throughout western Massachusetts and the world are gathering to welcome the new year on the Jewish Calendar. The biblical name for this holiday translates to “day of shouting” or “blasting.”
This day is special to those of the Jewish faith because it is a period of reflection. It is often celebrated with prayer, symbolic foods, and the blowing of a traditional horn called a shofar to rouse your spirit. People also traditionally dip apples in honey and wish for a sweet new year.
Communities in western Massachusetts gathered at local Synagogues to commemorate the start of the new year. “What better way to get ready for the new year than to think of others you know. Just bringing some extra joy to people and that they should have a happy and a sweet new year. That’s what it’s all about,” Rabbi Yakov Wolff from the Lubavitcher Yeshiva Academy explained.
Rosh Hashanah is a two-day observance and on these two days people take the time to reflect.