History UsefulNotes / JewishHolidays

The Last Supper in Christianity is generally held to have been a Passover seder, and in general, Easter falls quite close to Passover. The massive movement in the date of Easter is a result of having a Christian holiday map to the Jewish festival of Passover; the incessant debates over how to calculate the date of Easter is a result of the Christians refusing to just use the Jewish calendar to figure out the date already and rely on convoluted mathematics instead. Sects that just rely on Passover were declared heretical a long time ago and are mostly nonexistent. The name of Easter in many languages is based on the Hebrew Pesach (Passover): Latin and Greek Pascha gave rise to Spanish Pascua, Italian Pasqua, French Pâques, and Dutch Pasen (among others), and the Hebrew Pesach directly led to Arabic Id ul-Fiṣḥ.[[note]]Lest you forget, about 20% of Arabs are Christian. Also, Arabic makes no differentiation between Passover and Easter; this no doubt led to significant confusion in Arabic-speaking countries back when their Jewish populations were still intact.[[/note]]

The celebration of the adoption of the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, which, as you might guess from the date, fell on 5 Iyar 5708 according to the Hebrew Calendar. Although it's a national holiday in Israel, religious Zionists also celebrate it as a religious holiday outside Israel with their own celebrations.

One of the big three holidays, the only one to be only one (or two) days long. Shavuot (or Pentecost) takes place 50 days after Passover and commemmorates the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. There are only two well-known customs associated with it. First, men stay up literally the entire night studying Torah. Morning prayers are done before sunrise, and often finish around 7:00 AM. Second, plant decorations are common (flowers, greens etc.) in both homes and synagogues.

Among the non-Orthodox, there's also parties to be found on Christmas eve in major American cities, such as Jew'ltide and Heebonism.

* Marcheshvan (or Heshvan for short--some people think "mar" [Hebrew for "bitter"] was added because it has no holidays, something is especially jarring when it follows the holiday-packed Tishri, but this isn't true. Marheshvan is the older name.)

If you're wondering what Jews do on non-Jewish holidays, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dukfZs3RGhw this guy]] pretty much sums it up (at least for Jews in predominately Christian areas). Note that even on non-Jewish holidays, food is still involved.

* Marcheshvan (or Heshvan for short--some people think "mar" [Hebrew for "bitter"] was added because it has no holidays following Tishri which has like half of the holidays, but this isn't true. Marheshvan is the older name)

In Israel, the foreign holidays celebrated by a majority of the population are New Year's (50% chance it's specifically the Russian [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasIsBourgeois Novy God]] - If it's not, it's called "Sylvester's"), and Valentine's. Naturally, there's a vocal minority that discourages the celebrations, with the argument that "Sylvester/Valentine/[[CriticalResearchFailure Novy God]] [[HitlerAteSugar was an antisemite!]]"

Yes, observed. Not celebrated, observed. It's a somber day of mourning and reflection, recognizing [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles those soldiers]] who have died in service to Israel, as well as all the Jews killed in Pogroms since the 1870s, and it shows; Not only are all flags lowered to half-mast, all places of public entertainment closed, TV shut down, and radio only playing mood-appropriate songs, the entire country - [[UpToEleven even cars on highways]] - will stop everything and freeze in place for two minutes on 11 AM to observe a moment of silence, accompanied by a siren. Most Israelis will also visit memorials and graves of loved ones.

* "Major Holidays": They originate from the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), the first five books of the Judaeo-Christian religious canon. On these days, "work" is forbidden in mostly the same way it is on the Sabbath (cooking is allowed, as is transferring flame from one already-burning fuel source to another. Starting a new fire is not allowed). This includes operating electrical devices like light switches, riding buses, conducting business, and a myriad other laws. To confuse you further, this is known as a ''yom tov'' when compared against ''chol hamo'ed'' (below) -- but the full holiday is ''also'' known as ''yom tov'', so context matters.

->''"We have holidays up the ass! Sometimes I stay home, and I don't even know why!"''
-->--'''Creator/JonStewart'''

* Marcheshvan/Heshvan (the only month that, for most denominations, has no holidays, hence the addition of "mar," which is Hebrew for "bitter")

The iconic game played on Chanukah is the ''dreidel'', a spinning top with four sides. On each side is a letter: "Nun", "Gimel", "Heh", "Shin", which spell an acronym for ''Nes Gadol Hayah Sham'', "a great miracle happened there". In Israel, the Shin is replaced with a Peh, which changes the meaning to "a great miracle happened ''here''". Money is put into a pot (like in poker) and depending on what side the ''dreidel'' comes down on, you either put in or take out. It should be noted, however, that because the only "move" a player can make is spinning the dreidel, it is actually really boring to play, and only children and people who don't know better will actually take it seriously. One couple [[http://www.texasdreidel.com/ tried mixing it with Texas-hold-'em]], but we're getting off-topic now. Side note: Dreidel becomes quite a lot more fun when you make it a drinking game.

Occurs five days after Yom Kippur (yes, Tishri is a busy month). One of the big three holidays in the calendar and originally one of the three times when Jews are obliged to go to the Temple in Jerusalem (besides Passover and Shavuot). Sukkot is more of an agricultural festival, but nowadays is mainly known for the sometimes elaborate wooden huts that spring up in any heavily Jewish area. Jews eat and (some) sleep in them for seven days, celebrating God's providence throughout the Jews' journey out of Egypt, during which time they had to sleep in huts.

As a side note, in Israel it's also gotten a bit more important than is traditional or justified on purely religious grounds, though for completely different reasons: there, the whole fight-for-independence angle is played up, and depending on the political and social climate the importance of [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles military strength]] may be emphasized.[[note]]It's picked up an additional meaning for sports fans, since Maccabi Tel Aviv, one of the country's most popular sports club (in both soccer and basketball) is obviously named after the Maccabees. Miracles are expected to happen for them when they happen to play during the holiday, especially if it's against a Greek team.[[/note]]

By its nature, Chanukah is ''totally dissimilar'' from Christmas other than falling around the same time of year. We get annoyed when people try to conflate the two. Unfortunately, there are some Jews (often those jealous of their Christian friends) who have begun to do so, hence the creation of the "Chanukah bush" (to emulate Christmas trees) and the giving of presents; some families even give a present every single night of the holiday, which makes people's heads hurt. The 'Chanukah bush' is tragically ironic, given that the point of Chanukah is that we did not assimilate into Greek culture but kept our Jewish identity. Presents are somewhat justified, however, as a variation on the Ashkenazi tradition of giving Chanukah gelt (Yiddish for "money")--plus, who doesn't like presents?

''Food!'' Lots of stuff ''can't'' be eaten on Passover, leading to creative copies and workarounds. Potatoes and eggs are always popular, and potato starch is often used instead of flour. Egg noodles instead of normal ones, too. And some really awful candy and chocolate. Another flour substitute is matzah meal, essentially pulverized matzah. Unfortunately, matzah has adverse effects on the digestive system, so many an Ashkenazi Jew will spend at least the end of Pesach somewhat blocked. As noted above, this is one holiday where it's definitely better to be Sephardi; since the Sephardim never engaged in the vast multiplication of stringencies (particularly the ban on things ''resembling'' chametz) that the Ashkenazis do, many of them can go through Passover with their diets largely unchanged (albeit with more rice than might be usual in a week).

One of the most important holidays in the calendar, marking the beginning of the civil year. It is also the exception that proves the rule: a holiday that is two days both in and out of Israel. Rosh Hashanah, together with Yom Kippur, are known as the ''yamim nora'im'' ("Days of Awe"), also known as the "High Holidays". During this time, Jews are exhorted to examine and repent of their sins, as it is believed that on this day God starts judging humanity for their actions during the previous year and seals their fate for the whole year ten days later (Yom Kippur). Thus, "Happy New Year" is often deemed an inappropriate greeting; traditionally it has to be "l'shana tova tikatev v'techatem" ("may you be written and sealed for a good year"), or simply "shana tova" ("have a good year").

The last day is known as "Hoshana Rabbah". There are some aspects of the High Holidays that trickle down here. The prayers are longer, and near the end, the men will take a bundle of five ''aravos'' and bash them against the ground several times. This is very symbolic and [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial has nothing whatsoever to do with letting out the stress of building huts and cooking and cleaning so much]].