
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 25, 1995                   TAG: 9509270004
SECTION: NEWSFUN                    PAGE: NF-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SO?!!

You might notice that some of your Jewish friends are missing from school today. Most likely that's because they are observing Rosh Hashana - New Year's and the Day of Judgment, an important holiday for Jews.

The holidays, which started at sundown Sunday, began a 10-day period called the High Holidays, which ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The holidays are a time for thinking about the past year and contacting those people with whom you have lost touch.

Rosh Hashana also has a sweet side, symbolized by the eating of apples and honey, as families gather for reunions and holiday meals.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown Oct. 3. It is perhaps the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar and marks the end of the Holy Days.

In ancient times, a scapegoat, and later a chicken, was sacrificed as a symbol of taking way the sins from the people. Some families still observe ceremonies in which sins are symbolically transferred to a handkerchief filled with coins that are later donated to charity.

Yom Kippur also is a day marked by fasting, or not eating. The day is ended with the blowing of the shofar, a ram's horn used in ancient times as a signaling trumpet.

by CNB