Personal Rosh Hashana Traditions


If we have learned only one thing during our "Challah Connection Years" it's that we can always rely on you, our customers, to invent the most creative and interesting holiday traditions. We recently asked you to submit your favorite Rosh Hashana tradition, one that brings personal meaning to the holiday. The first 5 respondents received a free chocolate babka, below are the responses.
Feel free to submit your tradition and we'll be happy to add it to this page! "

-Rochelle U., Ann Arbor, MI 

"My family was always a little uneven and unorthodox in what they celebrated, so for a long time, my only Rosh Hashanah experiences were in Hebrew School. As I got older though, I made my own way and my own traditions. It seems I have fewer and fewer friends who are Jewish, and Rosh Hashanah is the perfect time to celebrate our shared background. So, I started out small, picking up apples and little packages of honey from the convenience store around the corner from my office and hand delivering them to friends. I moved since then, and now, if I mail out my little convenience store celebration even a day late, I have emails asking about the delay. Since I don't see them all the time, the new year is a chance for me to reconnect with friends that have drifted away literally and figuratively." -Rachel C., NY, NY

"My wife and I keep it simple, which I think is a good way to enjoy the holiday. We cut up apples and tear up challah and dip the pieces in honey. To me this is an excellent time to reflect on the sweetness of life and the many blessings bestowed upon us, whatever our situation at the time. It also is an act of creation, taking two separate things and combining them to make something new and better. An imitation of Genesis, perhaps, but also a simple reminder that we have the capability to take our current situation, good as it is, and make it even better." -Carl W., Arlington, VA

"The first night of Rosh Hashanah is one I look forward to all year -- beautiful services with music, friends, family and sweets. The second night equals the first, though: that's when I prepare my celebratory dinner. I brown chicken in a skillet, and then braise it in a mixture of apple cider, Dijon mustard and herbes de Provence. Served with apples and honey, a gorgeous round challah, couscous ... everyone is full, happy and feeling festive! I have been celebrating Rosh Hashanah for many years, but the combination of services and the second-night dinner (considered by many to be my specialty) is a recent -- within the past 3 years -- tradition, though it is one that will continue for many, many years to come ...." -Mary B., Ann Arbor, MI

"My most favorite part of rosh hashana observance is the custom of tashlich where i join a group of my kehillah or community on the first late afternoon of rosh hashana with a small but meaningful baggie of bread crumbs in hand......we combine enjoying the 21st century communing with nature during our walk from the synagogue to a lake or stream with the symbolism so meaningful of casting the bread unto the water and as i believe eradicating all the negative things that have passed our way during the previous year and now starting with a clean and fresh slate as we watch the bread crumbs float away down the moving stream of water..... i started participating in this tradition back in 1987 when living in aventura florida and accompanying my great aunt estelle and uncle jack nydick now departed to the intracoastal stream and as a family sharing this marvelous ritual......twenty years later when doing the same right here up north in bayonne nj i reflect on how this all began for me sharing the experience and learning from my elders..........dor l dor....from one generation to another." -Alan N., Bayonne, NJ

"Though my mother never made teiglach, we always had teiglach on Rosh Hashana, because we always had company for meals, and our guests invariably brought boxes of teiglach. The kosher, local bakeries (in Brooklyn, NY) always had beautiful mounds of teiglach in the windows at that time of year. When I moved to Michigan, there were no such bakeries, so I learned to make teiglach and did so every year with my children. Here's the recipe." -Rochelle U., Ann Arbor, MI

"My favorite Rosh Hashana tradition is our yearly family excursion to our local apple orchard for apple picking. We started this about 15 years ago when our boys were very young, but this is still something that we all love to do together. The apple sauce, pies and cakes that we then bake have an especially sweet and wonderful taste." -Jane M., Westport, CT

© Challah Connection, 2011