Jewish Holidays 2026

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Passover (Pesach) commemorates the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. For eight days (seven in Israel), Jews remove all leavened grain products (chametz) from their homes and eat only matzah. It's the most widely observed Jewish holiday, celebrated with the Passover Seder — a ritual meal that retells the story of the Exodus through food, song, and storytelling.

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Rosh Hashanah (literally 'Head of the Year') is the Jewish New Year, marking the beginning of the High Holy Days — the Ten Days of Repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. It's a time of prayer, reflection, and renewal. The shofar (ram's horn) is blown in synagogue, and symbolic foods like apples and honey represent the hope for a sweet new year.

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Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish festival commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE, after the Maccabees' victory over the Seleucid Empire. The central mitzvah is lighting the chanukiah (Hanukkah menorah) — one candle the first night, adding one each night until all eight are lit. Traditional foods are fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days.

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Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — is the holiest day of the Jewish year, the solemn culmination of the Ten Days of Repentance that begin on Rosh Hashanah. Observed with a 25-hour complete fast (no food or water), the day is spent almost entirely in synagogue prayer, moving through five distinct services: Maariv with the haunting Kol Nidre on the eve, Shacharit, Musaf, Mincha, and the climactic Ne'ilah as the gates of heaven are said to close. Jews wear white, symbolizing purity and the angelic, and many don a kittel (white robe). The Yizkor memorial prayer honors those who have passed. As Ne'ilah ends, a single long shofar blast pierces the silence, sealing the day's judgment and sending the congregation into the new year cleansed and renewed.

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Sukkot is a joyous seven-day harvest festival — one of the three biblical pilgrimage holidays — during which Jews build and eat (and some sleep) in a sukkah, a temporary outdoor hut with a roof of natural vegetation (schach). The sukkah commemorates the fragile booths in which the Israelites dwelled during their 40 years in the desert, and its temporary nature reminds us of life's impermanence. A central mitzvah is the waving of the arba minim — the four species: a lulav (palm branch), etrog (citron), hadassim (myrtle branches), and aravot (willow branches) — which are held together and waved in six directions. Sukkot is immediately followed by Shemini Atzeret, a distinct holiday of its own, and Simchat Torah, when the annual Torah reading cycle is joyously completed and restarted with dancing and singing.

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Purim is the most joyous and raucous holiday on the Jewish calendar, celebrating the miraculous salvation of the Jewish people of ancient Persia as recounted in the Megillah — the Book of Esther. When the wicked Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews, Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai outmaneuvered him, turning the tables in a dramatic reversal that Jews celebrate to this day. The holiday is anchored by four mitzvot: reading the Megillah twice (evening and morning), sending food gifts to friends (mishloach manot), giving charity to the poor (matanot l'evyonim), and enjoying a festive celebratory meal (seudah). Costumes and masks are worn by children and adults alike, groggers (noisemakers) drown out Haman's name whenever it's read, and the atmosphere is one of unbridled joy. The Talmudic instruction to celebrate 'ad d'lo yada' — until you cannot tell the difference — makes Purim uniquely exuberant in Jewish life.

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