Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: The High Holidays Explained

If a Jewish friend goes quiet on work messages for a couple of days in the early fall, or you hear a ram's horn sounding from a synagogue down the street, you are probably near the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the most widely observed days in the Jewish year, and together they form one continuous season of reflection rather than two separate events.

People sometimes assume Rosh Hashanah is simply a festive new year and Yom Kippur simply a solemn fast. Both are joyful and serious at once, in different proportions. Here is how the season unfolds, and what its central ideas actually mean.

Rosh Hashanah: the head of the year

Rosh Hashanah, literally "head of the year," marks the beginning of the Jewish year and, in tradition, the anniversary of the creation of humanity. It is observed for one or two days depending on the community. Families gather for festive meals, synagogues fill, and the greeting you will hear everywhere is "shanah tovah," a good year.

The best-known symbol of the day is the shofar, a ram's horn blown in synagogue with a series of short, long, and broken blasts. By custom, one hundred blasts are sounded across the Rosh Hashanah services. Hearing the shofar is considered the central mitzvah of the day, and its raw, unpolished sound is traditionally understood as a kind of alarm clock for the soul: a call to wake up, pay attention, and begin the year honestly.

At the table, slices of apple are dipped in honey, with a wish for a sweet year ahead. Round challah bread, often studded with raisins, replaces the usual braided loaf, echoing the cycle of the year. Another beloved custom is tashlich, from the Hebrew word for "cast off": on Rosh Hashanah afternoon, many Jews go to a river, lake, or other body of flowing water and symbolically cast their sins into the water, sometimes tossing in breadcrumbs, while reciting prayers. It is a physical picture of letting the old year go.

Psalm 27 is the season's psalm, read daily in many communities from the month before Rosh Hashanah through the holiday season. It opens with a note of confidence that carries the whole period:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

Psalm 27:1 (JPS 1917)

The ten days between: teshuvah

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are separated by ten days, traditionally called the Days of Awe, or the Ten Days of Repentance. The work of this stretch is teshuvah, a Hebrew word often translated "repentance" but literally meaning "return": turning back toward God, toward other people, and toward the person you intend to be.

Teshuvah has a demanding order of operations, and it is one of the season's most distinctive teachings. For wrongs between a person and God, prayer and sincere repentance address them. But for wrongs against another person, tradition teaches that you must first go to that person, acknowledge what you did, and ask their forgiveness. Seeking God's forgiveness while skipping the apology you owe a friend, a parent, or a colleague puts the steps in the wrong order. Many people use these ten days to make those calls and visits, settle old friction, give charity, and set right what can still be set right.

Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year, and it begins at sunset with one of Judaism's most famous services. Kol Nidre, named for the Aramaic prayer that opens it, is chanted before sundown as the congregation stands. Its haunting melody is familiar even to many Jews who attend synagogue only on this night, and arriving early matters: the prayer must begin while it is still day.

The day itself is marked by a fast of about twenty-five hours, from before sunset until after nightfall the following day, during which adults abstain from food and drink. Children under the age of bar or bat mitzvah do not fast, and anyone for whom fasting would endanger their health is exempt: Jewish law places the preservation of life above the fast, and those who are ill, pregnant, or otherwise at risk are directed not to fast, or to eat and drink as needed. Many who cannot fast still observe the day through prayer and reflection.

Traditionally, five prayer services fill the day: Kol Nidre in the evening, then morning, additional, afternoon, and closing services. The last is Ne'ilah, the "closing of the gates," as the day's final prayers are offered and the congregation imagines the gates of heaven swinging shut. It ends with a single long blast of the shofar. Many worshippers wear white, a symbol of purity and new beginnings, and some wear a kittel, a white robe, or avoid leather shoes as a sign of humility. After nightfall, the fast is broken with a shared meal, often a lighter spread of bagels, fish, and sweets, and the season closes in relief and good company.

The Book of Life, and what the season is really about

Through the High Holidays, Jews greet one another with wishes to be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life. Tradition pictures God opening the books on Rosh Hashanah, reviewing each life, with the record sealed on Yom Kippur. Understood as imagery rather than bookkeeping, it expresses the season's core conviction: the past year counts, choices have weight, and the future is not fixed. Teshuvah, prayer, and charity are traditionally said to soften the decree, which is another way of saying a person can genuinely change direction.

That is why the season, for all its solemnity, is not gloomy. Rosh Hashanah meals are sweet. Yom Kippur ends in song and a shofar blast, not silence. The Days of Awe ask for honesty about the year behind you and hope about the year ahead, and most Jews would tell you both halves matter.

Because the Jewish calendar is lunisolar, the holidays fall on different Gregorian dates each year, usually in September or early October. If you want to see where they land this year, you can Explore Judaism in Faith Map, where the Judaism track works from the Hebrew calendar, holiday dates included, and reading and lessons are free.