Today we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Some of the other Jewish holidays have a dark undertone which I don’t find very festive, but the new year is just full of good wishes for the upcoming year. Jeremy is half Jewish through his father’s side, so that makes him a non-Jew because one’s Jewishness is claimed through the maternal line. But I take what I can get, I count the kids as 1/4 Jew, so we celebrated in our own way.
This kids had no school today because of Rosh Hashanah. There is a large Jewish population here – I grew up attending a number of bar mitzvahs. I wonder why we don’t get Chinese New Year off – certainly there are the same number of Chinese as Jews here. Oh well, what do I know?
Started the day with pancakes. (Not a Jewish tradition, just a Kappa tradition.)
Then we went to the river for a morning hike. Apparently throwing pebbles into running water symbolizes casting away ones sins. Jeremy, Vince and I threw many stones trying to skip them across the surface of the water. Edda threw one tiny stone.
Then you are suppose to eat apples dipped in honey – this symbolizes a sweet new year. Vince wanted to change it to apples dipped in peanut butter. I wonder if this mean we are in for a nutty new year?
Everything I know about Rosh Hashanah (or at least everything I recall at the moment) I learned from this video: http://roshhashanahgirl.com/
Loved that video and todays’ blog. we are still singing that little tune. Doris, you really are a very good writer. I hope that you will continue to blog and and all the free time you are about to not have consider a book about life with not just edda but Vince and Edda and Jeremy and Rhett.
I loved the post (and the video Jeremy!) I also agree that pancakes are a good way to start ANY day!