‘My Rosh Hashana’

This time of year is especially important to me and my family, from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur it is a time for Jewish people to celebrate the new year and think about new beginnings. We wish each other ‘L’Shana Tovah’ in Hebrew meaning ‘a good year.’ Wishing all our friends and family a happy, sweet, and healthy new year and hope that the next year will bring joy and peace for all. We make honey cake and eat apple dipped in honey to represent the sweetness of the new year, celebrating a ‘simcha’ (joyful occasion).

As a child this was a time of family celebration, mostly baking and cooking with my Buba (grandmother in Yiddish). We would make honey cake and chicken soup with kneidlach (a dumpling made from matzo) and always get a ‘new’ fruit for the new year. I would go with my grandmother to buy the most unusual fruit we could find to share with everyone. My favourites were star fruit and dragon fruit, I remember the first time I tried them, it was so special. My memories of Rosh Hashana are full of happy times with my parents, grandparents, brother and pets (they got gifts too). The house being full of beautiful scents of baking and other foods, my Buba and Zeida (grandfather in Yiddish, pronounced Zaydeh) calling me their ‘Bubala’ or ‘Bubbeleh’ (term of endearment) and being so proud when I said Kiddush (prayers) for the first time.
 

Nowadays I live a long way from my family, my grandparents have passed away and I live too far away from ‘Schule/Shul’ (Synagogue) to be able to celebrate with others. As a child today would have meant a day off school, wearing my precious ‘Magen David’ (pronounced mogen dovid) necklace that my grandparents had bought me (Star of David) and enjoying the service with my family with of course Kiddush after (prayers over wine). One of the most special parts of Rosh Hashana is when the Shofar (musical instrument made from a ram’s horn) is played. The Shofar must be blown at least 30 times on each day of Rosh Hashana, mostly it is played more than this. The sound resonates and has always been something I have loved.  After the service we would all then come home and have a big meal together.

My mother called on Sunday to wish me a happy new year but sounded sad, I knew she missed my Buba and Zeida so much, she said she had made honey cake, but it would never taste the same as my Buba’s. I told her it is different, but it is still honey cake and just as lovely, it is made with love. My Buba would always say chicken soup was ‘Jewish Penicillin,’ made to make you feel better through the warmth and love poured into it. Me and my mother talked about the fun and happy times we would all have as a family when I was young, it was both a happy and sad conversation, memories always are.

Even my father gets involved at Rosh Hashana. My father is Italian and he is Catholic however he celebrates and supports my mother, myself and my brother and our faith, the holidays are a time to be together and think about how lucky we are and what we can give to others. I feel so proud to be part of such wonderful cultural communities. My Zeida was from both a Moroccan/Spanish (Sephardi) family on his father’s side and Polish (Ashkenazi) background on his mother’s side. My grandmother’s family were Lithuanian (Ashkenazi) and Irish, her father’s family emigrated to live in Cymru in the 1800’s. Our family food is eclectic, Jewish people have lived all over the world and our food and culture represents a global community.

My brother will be celebrating this year with his wife (she is Maltese but also enjoys the Jewish traditions like my father) and twin 1 year old daughters teaching them the traditions of Rosh Hashana so they can have wonderful memories of their own to take with them through life. I remind myself even though we cannot be together at this time of year we are not apart because we are connected by our traditions.

The new year can also be tough for so many, we remember to give what we can and open our hearts. It is a time to share what we have with others.

I want to wish everyone a happy Jewish New year 5783 (the year of the Jewish calendar).

L’Shana Tovah everyone, may your year bring you and your families health and happiness.