The story behind the October holidays

Most non-Jews associate Judaism with Hanukkah, the winter festival of lights. However Hanukkah is actually a rather minor holiday, and the two days that MCPS schools have off in October for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, collectively called the High Holy Days, are the most important days of the Jewish year.

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah literally translates into English as "Head of the Year" and is frequently referred to as the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah, however, has few similarities to the American New Year, according to Judaism 101.

According to the Jewish lunar calendar, the holidays shift around year to year relative to the secular calendar, which is why the Jewish New Year is nowhere near the secular New Year. This year, Rosh Hashanah falls on Oct. 4, and Yom Kippur falls on Oct. 13.

On Rosh Hashanah, many Jews spend all day in synagogue, participating in an elongated version of the standard service. During the service, the ram's horn, or Shofar, is blown. The shofar is supposed to remind people of the covenant between God and the Jewish people, according to MyJewishLearning.com . People traditionally greet each other with the phrase "L'shanah tovah," meaning "May you have a good year."

During the holiday, which more orthodox Jews celebrate for two full days, people eat traditional bread, called challah, and apples dipped in honey to symbolize the people's hopes for a sweet new year. Other traditions include tashlikh, where people toss bread into moving water, symbolizing their sins being washed away with the New Year.

Yamim Noraim

The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the Yamim Noraim, or the Days of Awe and Repentance. This time is meant to be a period of serious introspection and repentance for sins committed during the past year.

One of the central concepts explored during the period is that God has a book in which he writes everyone's name and decides who will live and who will die. These books are written on Yom Kippur, but by good deeds and repentance, people can change their fate before the books are "sealed" on Yom Kippur. One of the traditional prayers on Rosh Hashanah says, "On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed: "How many shall pass on, and how many shall be born. Who shall live, and who shall die," according to the Chabad Online Network.

Jewish liturgy states that repenting on Yom Kippur heals sins that people have committed against God. In order to heal rifts with others, people must make a gesture of reconciliation, which the other person is obligated to accept if an appropriate gesture is made.

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the single most important day on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, and it is much more somber in character than the celebratory Rosh Hashanah.

Jews over the age of B'nei Mitzvah (another well-known Jewish tradition where 13 year-old boys and girls are called to read from the Torah, the first five books of the Tanakh) must fast on Yom Kippur from sundown the night before the holiday to sundown on Yom Kippur. Anyone who needs to eat for medical purposes, including pregnancy, are not only exempted from fasting, but are not allowed to fast, according to Judaism 101.

The last service of the holiday ends at sundown and concludes with a final long blast on the shofar. People often go to have dinner or "break-fast" with friends and neighbors after the service.