Rosh Hashanah and Mara's Birthday

There was a beautiful double rainbow to celebrate Mara's 12th birthday.
The second one didnt' show up in the picture.

 This year we had thought it would be fun to learn more about Jewish holidays. We have a friend and neighbor with a Jewish heritage so she has shared some books and information with us. We have also been reading through the old testament so are learning about the holidays that God set apart for the Israelites. It has been fun and interesting.

 This year the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah) happened to fall on Mara's birthday. We decided to celebrate them together. In looking online I discovered that this day is also called Yom Teruah or Feast of Trumpets.

   Here are some of the things that we did to celebrate the Holiday:

• We read about it (and a story that went with the day) in "The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays"
• Mara made Hallah Bread for our supper
• I made Tsimmes (Sweet carrot stew) for supper. Our friend said that was a normal holiday meal out their house. We had fun trying it though it didn't end up being a favorite of ours.
• We had Apple and Honey cake with whipped cream for Mara's birthday cake. Honey cake is a traditional dessert.

• Mara and Heidi (our neighbor) made place cards which had Hebrew new years greetings in them.  They said "Shanah Tovah" which means: "May your year be good and sweet".
• Dad brought over his Shofar and the kids practiced playing it and Dad played a long blast on it before our meal. To see a Shofar you can watch this interesting video that I found. The shofar in the video is quite a bit bigger and fancier than the ones my Dad has made. No one in my family has managed to learn to play the shofar so well yet either.

Some of the things that are focused on at this holiday are:

• Looking back on the old year with self examination.
• Looking ahead to how you want to live the coming year.
• Facing up to your mistakes and asking forgiveness.
• Sweet things (no bitter foods!) so that you will have sweetness all year. Honey is traditional so that was perfect for us with our large honey harvest.

It was interesting for us to learn more about this holiday and it was fun getting to celebrate it along with Mara's birthday.