In this section or our website you will find information about all manner of Jewish holydays, whether they be High Holydays such as Rosh haShanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Torah-prescribed festivals such as Pesach (Passover), rabbinically enacted holydays such as Purim, Chanukah and assorted fast days, or holydays such as Rosh Chodesh (which marks the new month in Israel). Also included are ‘modern’ holydays (those prescribed within recent decades) such as Yom haAtzma’ut (Israel’s Independence Day), Yom haZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), and Yom haSho’ah (Holocaust Memorial Day).
For more detailed information about any of the Jewish holydays, please click on one of the links below
The timing of all these holydays is determined by the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar calendar adjusted at regular intervals so that it stays in step with the solar year, thereby ensuring that each holyday falls in its correct season of the year. For more information about the Jewish calendar, please see our Jewish Calendar section.
Shabbat (Sabbath)
Pilgrim Festivals (Shalosh Regalim)
- The Pilgrim Festivals
- Chol HaMo’ed (Intermediate Days of a Festival)
- For information about the individual pilgrim festivals (Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot), please see the appropriate section(s) below.
Pesach (Passover)
- Pesach (Passover)
- Observances
- Fast of the First Born
- How to Prepare for Pesach
- Bedikat Chametz
- The Seder
- How to Host a Seder
- How to Make Kneidlach
- Prayers
- Stories & Songs
- Links
Sefirat HaOmer (The Omer Period)
- Sefirat HaOmer (the Omer Period)
- Lag baOmer
- Yom haSho’ah
- Yom haZikaron
- Yom haAtzma’ut (Israel’s Independence Day)
- Yom Yerushalayim
Shavuot
The Three Weeks
Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year)
- Rosh HaShanah
- Symbols & Customs
- The Shofar
- How to Buy a Shofar
- How to Make a Shofar
- Links
- Tzom (Fast of) Gedaliah
