Learn about Jewish Holidays. All holidays start at sundown.
Featured Holiday Events
What is it?
It’s a holiday also known as the New Year for Trees. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, which marks the beginning of planting season in Israel.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown February 12 - 13 |
| 2026 | Sundown February 1 - 2 |
| 2027 | Sundown January 22 - 23 |
How is it celebrated
Tu B’Shevat is celebrated by planting trees, being respectful to the environment (reduce, reuse, recycle) planting seeds (especially parsley) for Passover, eating some of the Seven Species native to Israel (wheat, figs, etc), or attending a Tu B'Shevat Seder with fruits and vegetables.
What is it?
Purim is the happiest of all the holidays. It commemorates Queen Esther’s bravery and how she and her uncle Mordechai saved the Jews of Persia from an evil plot by Haman (boo), the Prime Minister, to destroy them.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown March 13 - 15 |
| 2026 | Sundown March 2 - 4 |
| 2027 | Sundown March 22 - 24 |
How is it celebrated?
We eat hamantaschen cookies, listen to the story of Esther, dress up in costumes, make lots of noise during storytelling when Haman's name is spoken, make food baskets (sh'lach manot) for friends and family, give to the needy, rejoice with a festive meal, and fast the day before.
What is it?
Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus in which the Israelites celebrate their liberation from slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown April 12 - 20 |
| 2026 | Sundown April 1 - 9 |
| 2027 | Sundown April 21 - 29 |
How is it celebrated?
We have a festive meal called a seder, which means “order,” as we read the Haggadah during the meal. We retell the story of the Exodus during the seder. We sing the four questions, drink four cups of wine, eat foods from the seder plate, recite the ten plagues, and have dessert after finding the afikoman. We remove of all the chametz, or leavening, from our homes, and only eat matzah during the holiday. We celebrate springtime, as Passover is one of the harvest festivals taking place in the spring season. We count the Omer beginning the second night of Passover as a reminder of the approach of the holiday of Shavuot.
What is it?
Yom HaShoah is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown April 23 – 2 |
| 2026 | sundown April 13 - 14 |
| 2027 | Sundown May 3 - 4 |
How is it commemorated?
Yom Hashoah rituals are still being created. The connecting theme is to never forget what happened. In the state of Israel since 1960 a siren is sounded on Yom Hashoah and traffic and pedestrains stop through the state for two minutes of silent devotion. In North American, it is observed in synagogues and Jewish Community centers with commemorations ranging from services, communal vigils, and educational programs.
What is it?
Yom Ha’atzmaut is Israel’s Independence Day.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown April 30 – May 1 |
| 2026 | Sundown April 21 - 22 |
| 2027 | Sundown May 11 - 12 |
How is it celebrated?
Yom Ha’atzmaut is celebrated by immersing ourselves in Israeli culture with Israeli folk dancing, songs, and food. We also go on hikes and picnics during the day.
What is it?
Lag Ba’omer is a minor holiday that happens on the 33rd day of the Omer. The Omer is a 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot. The Omer is a time of semi-mourning. Wedding and other celebrations are traditionally forbidden during this time. Lag Ba’Omer is a break from the morning of the Omer. Modern Jewish tradition connects the holiday to the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire (132-135CE). It is a celebration that symbolizes our fighting Jewish spirit. Agriculturally, the Omer period tracks the harvest. The beginning of the barley harvest to the end of the wheat harvest. It also tracks the Jewish peoples exodus from Egypt to the giving of the Torah.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown May 15 - 16 |
| 2026 | Sundown May 4 - 5 |
| 2027 | Sundown May 24 - 25 |
How is it celebrated?
Children and families picnic and play outdoors, in Israel trees are planted. It is customary to light bonfires, have first haircuts, shoot bows and arrows, hold Jewish weddings and other festive events, and visit the resting place of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
What is it?
Shavuot means weeks, and the festival of Shavuot marks the completion of the seven-week counting period between Passover and Shavuot. It is also the celebration of receiving the Torah, especially the Ten Commandments.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown June 2 - 3 |
| 2026 | Sundown May 22 - 23 |
| 2027 | Sundown June 11 - 12 |
How is it celebrated?
Shavuot begins with a festival meal, including all of the blessings—candles, wine, shehecheyanu (a blessing for yearly firsts), and bread. The meal features dairy foods, especially cheese. It is also custom to hold late-night Shavuot synagogue study sessions that can be done in the home where children can participate.
What is it?
Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, is the major day of communal mourning in the Jewish calendar.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown August 2 - 3 |
| 2026 | Sundown July 22 - 23 |
| 2027 | Sundown August 11 - 12 |
How is it commemorated?
Tisha B’av is observed with prayers and fasting. Shaving and the wearing of cosmetics and leather are banned, and people are also expected to refrain from smiles, laughter and idle conversation. All ornaments are removed from synagogues and lights are dimmed. The ark (where the Torah is kept) is draped in black.
What is it?
Tu B’Av is the Jewish Day of Love. The 15th day of the month of Av is both an ancient and a modern holiday. In ancient times it originally was a post-biblical day of joy and served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women. For many years the holiday was overlooked and in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel, it is celebrated as a Jewish Day of Love!
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown August 8 - 9 |
| 2026 | Sundown July 28 - 29 |
| 2027 | Sundown August 17 - 18 |
How is it celebrated?
Tu B’Av falls on a full moon like many other Jewish holidays. We link the night of the full moon with romance, love and fertility. Many people will wear white and dance in the moonlight. Go on a romantic date with your love, or go out dancing with friends. At the Alpert JCC we celebrate Tu B’Av with chocolate kisses and a family dinner dance for the whole community.
What is it?
Rosh Hashanah (literally “head of the year”) is the celebration of the Jewish New Year.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown September 22 - 24 |
| 2026 | Sundown September 11 - 13 |
| 2027 | Sundown October 1 - 3 |
How is it celebrated?
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated by attending synagogue, hearing the shofar, sending/receiving greeting cards, eating round challah, and dipping apples in honey for a sweet new year. We also throw breadcrumbs into water as a way of symbolically casting away sins.
What is it?
Yom Kippur is the Jewish “Day of Atonement” and refers to the annual observance of fasting, prayer, and repentance. This solemn day is a time to reflect on the past year, ask for forgiveness, and for a good year to come.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown October 1 - 2 |
| 2026 | Sundown September 20 - 21 |
| 2027 | Sundown October 10 - 11 |
How is it commemorated?
Yom Kippur is commemorated by fasting from food and drink for the entire 25 hours of the holiday, refraining from certain activities, praying/asking for forgiveness, and hearing the shofar.
What is it?
Sukkot (the festival of booths) is the fall harvest festival.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown October 6 - 13 |
| 2026 | Sundown September 25 – October 2 |
| 2027 | Sundown October 4 – October 11 |
How is it celebrated?
Sukkot is celebrated by building a sukkah (temporary structure), decorating the sukkah, feasting in the sukkah, shaking and saying blessings over the lulav, etrog, hadas, and aravah, and fulfilling the mitzvah of hospitality by inviting friends and family to your sukkah.
What is it?
We complete the annual cyclical reading of the Torah and begin the cycle again. This completion of the readings is a time of great celebration. There are processions around the synagogue. People carry the Torah scrolls and there is plenty of singing and dancing. Children do not carry the scrolls (they are much too heavy!), but they often follow the procession around the synagogue, sometimes carrying small toy Torahs (stuffed plush toys or paper scrolls).
Throughout the year, passages of the Torah are read aloud in the synagogue. On Simchat Torah, the reading is completed (with the last two chapters of Deuteronomy), then immediately begun again (with Genesis). This symbolizes the fact that the study of the Torah has no beginning and no end. Children also join adults in carrying specially decorated flags in a series of seven processions (Hakafot) around the synagogue. The seven processions are in honor of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David. The children create their own flags and parade around the building.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown October 13 - 15 |
| 2026 | Sundown October 2 - 4 |
| 2027 | Sundown October 22 - 24 |
How is it celebrated?
Simchat Torah is celebrated with services at the synagogue, carrying the Torah scrolls, dancing with the Torah, and carrying decorated flags in a series of seven processions (hakafot) with honor Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David.
What is it?
The word Chanukah means dedication. The holiday begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev and lasts eight days. It is a festival celebrating freedom and the victory of the Maccabees over the armies of Syria in 165 B.C.E. On Chanukah, the Temple that once stood in Jerusalem was rededicated after it had been destroyed.
When is it?
| 2025 | Sundown December 14 - 22 |
| 2026 | Sundown December 4 - 12 |
| 2027 | Sundown December 24 – January 1 |
How is it celebrated?
Chanukah is celebrated by lighting candles on the menorah for eight nights with the shamash (helper candle), eating fried foods like latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly-filled donuts), and gelt (chocolate coins), and playing with a dreidel.
